Number 156, Newsletter - Association of Canadian Map Libraries

ASSOCIATION OF CANADIAN MAP LIBRARIES AND ARCHIVES
BULLETIN
ASSOCIATION DES CARTOTHÈQUES ET ARCHIVES CARTOGRAPHIQUES
DU CANADA
NUMBER 156 / SPRING/SUMMER 2017 NUMERO 156 / PRINTEMPS/ÉTÉ/ 2017
ASSOCIATION OF CANADIAN MAP LIBRARIES AND ARCHIVES /
ASSOCIATION DES CARTOTHÈQUES ET ARCHIVES CARTOGRAPHIQUES DU CANADA
MEMBERSHIP in the Association of Canadian Map Libraries and
Archives is open to both individuals and institutions having an interest
in maps and the aims and objectives of the Association. Membership
dues are for the calendar year and are as follows:
Full (Canadian map field)... $65.00
Associate (anyone interested)... $65.00
Institutional... $65.00
Student... $20.00
Members receive the ACMLA Bulletin, the official journal of the
Association, which is published three times a year.
Officers of the Association for 2017/2018 are:
Peuvent devenir MEMBRES de l’Association des cartothèques et
archives cartographiques du Canada tout individu et toute institutions
qui s’intéressent aux cartes ainsi qu’aux objectifs de l’Association.
La cotisation annuelle est la suivante:
Membres actifs(cartothécaires canadiens à plein temps)... 65,00$
Membres associés (tout les intéressées)... 65,00$
Institutions... 65,00$
Étudiant... 20,00$
Le Bulletin de l’ACACC sera envoye aux membres trois fois par
annee.
Les MEMBRES DU BUREAU de l’Association pour
l’anne 2017/2018 sont:
Views expressed in the Bulletin are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the
view of the Association.
The Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives gratefully acknowledges the financial
support given by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Les opinions exprimées dans le Bullein sont celles des collaborateurs et ne correspondent pas
nécessairement à celles de l’Association.
L’Association des cartothèques et archives cartographiques du Canada remercie le Conseil de
recherches en sciences humaines du Canada pour son apport financier.
Vice President/ President Elect/ Vice-président / Président élu
daniel Brendle-Moczuk
Maps and GIS librarian
McPherson Library
University of Victoria
Victoria, B.C.
danielbm@uvic.ca
Past President / Président sortant
Deena Yanofsky
Liaison Librarian
Humanities & Social Sciences Library
McGill University, Montréal, Québec
past-president@acmla-acacc.ca
Treasurer / Trésorier
Rebecca Bartlett
GIS and Digital Resources Librarian
MADGIC, Carleton University Library
Carleton University, Ottawa, ON
treasurer@acmla-acacc.ca
Secretary / Secrétaire
Julie Jones
GIS & Map Librarian | Librarian for Geography
Research Commons, W.A.C. Bennett Library
Simon Fraser University
secretary@acmla-acacc.ca
President / Président
Marcel Fortin
Head, Map and Data Library
Map and Data Library
130 St George St, 5th Floor
Toronto, Ontario
president@acmla-acacc.ca
Vice President Communications and Outreach / vice-président aux
Communications et Rayonnement
Tracy Sallaway
tracysallaway@gmail.com
Vice President Professional Development / vice-président au
Développement professionel
Jason Brodeur
Manager, Maps/Data/GIS
Mills Memorial Library
McMaster University, Hamilton, ON
brodeujj@mcmaster.ca
ACMLA MAILING ADDRESS / ACACC ADRESSE D’AFFAIRES
Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives /
Association des cartothèques et archives cartographiques du Canada
PO Box 60095
University of Alberta Postal Outlet
Edmonton AB T6G 2S4
http://www.acmla.org
ACMLA Bulletin index available at http://toby.library.ubc.ca/resources/infopage.cfm?id=187
Bulletin Staff / Collaborateurs
Editor:
Eva Dodsworth
Geospatial Data Services Librarian
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario
edodsworth@uwaterloo.ca
New Cartographic Resources Editor:
Cheryl Woods
Map & Data Centre
Western University
London, Ontario
cawoods@uwo.ca
Reviews Editor:
Sarah Simpkin
GIS and Geography Librarian
University of Ottawa
Ottawa, Ontario
sarah.simpkin@uottawa.ca
Regional News Editor:
Marilyn Andrews
Data Librarian and Geography Liaison
Librarian
University of Regina Library
University of Regina
Regina, Saskatchewan
marilyn.andrews@uregina.ca
Geospatial Data and Software
Reviews Editor:
Tomasz Mrozewski
Data, GIS and Government Documents
Librarian / Bibliothécaire pour les
données, les services géospatials et les
documents gouvernementaux
Laurentian University Library and
Archives / Bibliothèque et archives,
Université Laurentienne
Sudbury, Ontario
tmrozewski@laurentian.ca
GIS Trends Editor:
Barbara Znamirowski
Maps, Data and Government Information
Centre (MaDGIC)
Thomas J. Bata Library
TRENT UNIVERSITY
Peterborough, Ontario
bznamirowski@trentu.ca
BULLETIN DE L’ACACC
NUMÉRO 156 PRINTEMPS/ÉTÉ 2017
ACMLA BULLETIN
NUMBER 156 SPRING/SUMMER 2017
Table of Contents
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE - Marcel Fortin 2
CARTO 2017 CONFERENCE SUMMARY, June 20-23 4
ACMLA AWARDS 18
VIMY AT 100: NEW METHODS FOR UNDERSTANDING 21
AND COMMUNICATING THE BATTLE OF VIMY RIDGE
- Rebecca Bartlett and Trevor Ford
REVIEWS 24
Cartographies of Disease: Maps, Mapping, and
Medicine - Virginia Pow
Getting to Know ArcGIS Pro - René Duplain
Map Use: Reading, Analysis, Interpretation
- Peter Genzinger
REGIONAL NEWS - Marilyn Andrews 30
NEW CARTOGRAPHIC RESOURCES - Cheryl Woods 33
GEOSPATIAL DATA and SOFTWARE REVIEWS 35
- Tomasz Mrozewski
GIS TRENDS - Barbara Znamirowski 37
ACMLA MEMBERSHIP LIST 39
ON THE COVER...
Plan of Edmonton Settlement N.W.T. M. Deane. [Ottawa], Dominion Lands Office,
1883.
Published in 1986 by ACMLA. Reproduction sponsored by the Glenbow-Alberta
Institute, Calgary, Alberta.
ACML Facsimile Map Series No. 123 (ISBN 0827-8024
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
2
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Many will most likely be surprised to see my name as president of the ACMLA this year. It has already been
over ten years since I was last on the executive committee of the association. I agreed to offer my services to
the committee for the simple reason that I still believe in the association despite many issues our community
is currently facing and that its continued sustainability is an issue. The association no longer has very little
in the way of a revenue stream, we have dwindling membership, and member attention is increasingly
divided between various other groups.
My own doubts were quickly dissipated in June at the annual conference in Vancouver. As usual, the
incredible work and the quality of presentations by our colleagues convinced me anew that the ACMLA
is THE professional GIS, map, and data library community in Canada. As Deena Yanofsky so ably put it at
CARTO; our unique community comes together at the annual conference to learn from each other. And, I
would add, we do it while having fun, because the ACMLA is also a group of friends!
Without a doubt I have a learning curve ahead of me in the upcoming year as president but I am lucky to
have a great group of colleagues who are extremely dedicated who are continuing in their roles on the
executive. In fact, I would like to thank Jason Brodeur, Deena Yanofsky, Rebecca Bartlett, Tracy Sallaway
and Julie Jones for their great work over the past few years and for continuing on with me in this year of
transition on the executive committee. Thanks as well to Daniel Brendle-Moczuk for agreeing to become
president-elect. A special thank you as well to Siobhan Hanratty for all her excellent work over the last few
years on the executive, and for convincing me to accept the ACMLA challenge once again.
I will represent this community to the best of my abilities, but mostly, I want to listen to members of the
association. We need to have discussions about our work as we do at CARTO. But we also need to continue to
discuss the future of our association. It is a question of our continued viability to be able to discuss openly
issues that affect our community and our association.
As most of you know, over ten years ago I proposed a change to the association name. I continue to believe
our name to be outdated and that it in fact probably hinders us in our growth. I would love to hear member
opinions on this type of issue and would be glad to open up the topic again in a discussion on the ACMLA
listserv.
Marcel Fortin, President
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
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MESSAGE DU PRÉSIDENT
Plusieurs seront surpris de ma décision de faire partie de nouveau du comité exécutif de l’ACCAC cette année.
Il y a déjà plus d’une dizaine d’années depuis ma dernière participation dans le comité comme président.
J’ai décidé d’offrir mon service pour la simple raison que je crois toujours en notre communauté. Nous
passons certainement à travers un temps difficile à l’heure actuelle. En effet, la durabilité de l’association
est même en question. Nous avons un coffre vide, nous avons de moins en moins de membres, et d’autres
groupes portent l’attention de nos membres. Bref, j’aimerais faire partie de la solution pour faire revivre
notre association.
Si j’avais mes propres doutes de l’importance de l’ACACC, celles-ci sont disparues à Vancouver avec CARTO
2017. Avec la qualité des présentations et le travail toujours impressionnant de nos collègues, je fus
convaincu que cette communauté de professionnels en SIG, cartographie, et bibliothéconomie fait encore
partie de mon développement professionnel. Comme Deena Yanofsky l’a si bien dit pendant à Vancouver,
l’ACACC et CARTO représentent une communauté unique pour nous avec laquelle nous pouvons apprendre
les uns des autres. Tout en s’amusant, j’ajouterais. Nous travaillons fort comme groupe, mais nous savons
aussi nous divertir ensemble, parce que l’ACACC représente aussi un groupe d’amis.
Je dois avouer que j’en ai beaucoup à apprendre en reprenant le poste de président. Mais je suis chanceux
de bénéficier d’excellents collègues dans le comité qui, je suis sûr, pourront me guider et continuer de servir
très bien la communauté. Je remercie Deena Yanofsky, Jason Brodeur, Rebecca Bartlett, Tracy Sallaway et
Julie Jones, qui continueront leur travail comme membres du comité cette année. Je tiens à remercier Daniel
Brendle-Moczuk, aussi un nouveau venu dans le comité pour avoir accepté le poste de vice-président.
J’aimerais aussi remercier Siobhan Hanratty pour tout son excellent travail ses dernières années comme
présidente – et de m’avoir convaincu d’accepter ce challenge.
Je ferai mon possible de bien représenter notre communauté, mais surtout de vous écouter. J’encourage
tous les membres, donc, de me faire parvenir toutes idées, plaintes, et suggestions au sujet de l’association.
Je crois que la solution pour la durabilité de l’ACACC viendra à travers la participation de tous ses membres
en continuant à définir ce qu’est l’ACACC.
Comme vous le savez probablement j’ai proposé, il y a déjà plus de dix ans, de changer le nom de l’association.
La communauté n’était pas prête à faire ce grand changement à l’époque. Personnellement, je continue
à croire que le nom de l’association ne reflète toujours pas notre communauté et qu’il nous nuit parfois.
J’aimerais donc entendre les opinions des membres de la communauté à ce sujet d’une nouvelle identité
pour l’ACACC. Je suis prêt à en discuter sur la liste acmla-acacc-l s’il y a un appétit pour le faire dans la
communauté.
Marcel Fortin, Président
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
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CARTO 2017
http://acmla-acacc.ca/carto2017/
51st Annual Conference of the Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives (ACMLA)
June 20-23, 2017
Vancouver, British Columbia
Digital Revolutions | Analog Renaissance
The digital revolution has brought about considerable change for both users and stewards of
cartographic and geospatial information: Advances in imaging technologies have facilitated
a mass digital migration of physical collections; the rise of “born digital” cartographic and
geospatial information has transformed how collections are developed and used; and expanding
mandates for open scholarship are actively changing the expectations for managing and
distributing this information. While this “digital transition” has introduced novel opportunities
for gathering, investigating and sharing, it has also presented a variety of new challenges
to be addressed. In addition, the expansion of digital collections has not left their analog
counterparts obsolete; rather, it has provided an opportunity for critical reflection on the role
of physical collections, and their persisting value to research, pedagogy and public engagement.
Conference Organizers:
•Julie Jones, Simon Fraser University Library, Local Arrangements Committee Chair
•Jay Brodeur, McMaster University Library, Program Committee Chair
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
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June 20th - June 23rd, 2017
Tuesday June 20th : Pre-Conference Workshops
Building “deep” maps of the Great War: Critical information and modern
approaches for developing integrated, interactive map exhibits using historical
resources
Rebecca Bartlett, Carleton University
Gordon Beck & Jason Brodeur, McMaster University
Trevor Ford, Wilfrid Laurier University
Corresponding with Canada’s 150th anniversary, the ongoing centenary of the First World War
provides Canadians with an occasion to rediscover stories from a conflict that helped shape the identity
of a nation. Among the many modes for communicating these experiences and events, interactive
digital maps–or “deep maps”–provide a unique and powerful means of presenting information and
engaging audiences. By interacting with diverse types of digitized historical materials arranged
in both time and space, the user is afforded a media-rich, multidimensional experience of a story.
To this end, the goal of this workshop was to enhance participants’ understanding of cartography and
history of the Great War, and to develop their skills for using digital historical materials to create interactive
and integrative map exhibits. Through a series of integrated information sessions and hands-on activities,
participants reinforced their learning by discovering and developing materials, and building their own
interactive map exhibit using one (or multiple) platforms. In the process, the workshop content addressed
a number of common issues related to historical GIS development.
Instructional elements of this workshop included:
•Cartography and the great war: historical context; understanding and using grid reference systems; finding
cartographic resources.
•Finding and understanding materials from the Great War
•Tackling common issues in HGIS
•Creating geospatial information from historical materials
•Developing ‘deep maps’: An introduction to a variety of platforms for creating interactive map exhibits.
CARTO 2017 CONFERENCE SUMMARY
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
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Wednesday June 21st: Conference Presentations
KEYNOTE: INDIGENOUS MAPPING IN CANADA
Andrew Thompson, The Firelight Group
This session introduced the concept of indigenous mapping in Canada and outlined how First
Nations are using GIS technologies to advance their interests within the context of environmental
assessment. Mapping plays a critical role in communicating different perspectives of land use.
BRINGING SPATIAL APPROACHES INTO THE HUMANITIES
Julie Jones, Simon Fraser University
This presentation discussed strategies for introducing GIS and spatial thinking to researchers in the
Humanities, with a focus on literature students. It can be a leap for this population of learners to think of
the content they study as “data” or as something that can be visualized spatially. Dealing with these and
other barriers was addressed as approaches that are non-intimidating, accessible, and that also meet non-spatial
learning objectives were shared.
SPATIAL HUMANITIES: EXPLORING OPPORTUNITIES IN THE HUMANITIES AT DH@GUELPH
Quin Shirk-Luckett & Teresa Lewitzky, University of Guelph
How can spatial exploration and mapping help you develop new understandings and unique perspectives
of fictional and historical material? Arguably all topics of research in the Humanities have some
relationship with space. Everything happens somewhere. The general popularity and ubiquity of tools
such as GPS and Google Maps have engendered a new level of spatial awareness. Suddenly academics
are presented with the opportunity to turn their bits of paper into bytes of data and create digitized
versions of previously analog artefacts of history, culture, and literature. This spatial analysis yields
new ways to engage with the information, revealing new patterns, trends and understanding. Not
surprisingly, there has been a steady uptake in GIS usage among Humanities academics. The results of
which have been visually powerful and in many cases offer new perspectives on long studied topics.
In 2016, and again in 2017, we had the opportunity to offer a week-long hands-on course introducing spatial
humanities through DH@Guelph summer institute. We examined primary archival source materials; walked
and mapped a fictional text; created spatial data; learned GIS processes and techniques; and explored tools
for creating online exhibits of artefacts, research, and maps. We used a heavily experiential and active
learning approach to immerse the class in spatial insight, while also learning technical skills, and having fun!
SPATIAL TOOLS IN THE HUMANITIES CLASSROOM: TALES FROM THE FRONTLINES OF A
FACULTY-LIBRARIAN COLLABORATION
Deena Yanofsky & Nathalie Cooke, McGill University
Faculty-librarian collaborations are a frequent topic of discussion in the professional literature and often
seen as the gold standard associated with student information literacy and IL curriculum integration on
campus. Opportunities for blended, faculty-librarian course instruction, however, tend to be rare; librarians
tend to be limited to teaching skills-based workshops or one-shot sessions rather than fully integrated into
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
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disciplinary courses. Over the past few years, increased interest in digital scholarship has renewed attention
toon the role of librarians and, in particular, the contributions that GIS and data librarians can make to both
undergraduate and graduate education in the classroom. Courses in digital scholarship curriculum strongly
reflect key aspects of librarianship, including open access, sustainable formats and tools, archives and archival
theory, data sharing, information ethics, metadata, openness, and digital publication. Digital scholarship on
campus provides librarians with new and meaningful opportunities to imbue syllabi and pedagogical styles
with the values of librarianship. This session will focus on a collaboration between a disciplinary faculty
member and a data librarian to create and teach a digital humanities course. From librarian and archivist class
visits to information and digital literacy focused projects and assignments, this course blended disciplinary
concepts and course content with critical lessons on digital publication, data evaluation and usage, and archival
theory to produce digital projects. The presenters provided an overview of the course design and syllabus,
showing examples of class assignments, and shared student feedback in an effort to extract best practices, as
well as some of the lessons learned, that will help others looking to build similar on-campus collaborations.
HGIS USING ARCGIS ONLINE
Marcel Fortin, University of Toronto
This presentation focussed on the development of Historical GIS projects using ArcGIS Online. Macel
demonstrated useful methods, tools and templates that can be used to build applications that can bring life
to historical maps and data.
VIMY AT 100: NEW METHODS FOR UNDERSTANDING AND COMMUNICATING THE BATTLE
OF VIMY RIDGE
Rebecca Bartlett, Carleton University
Trevor Ford, Wilfrid Laurier University
The First World War represents a watershed moment for Canada. During the course of four years, 620,000
Canadians were mobilized of which 67,000 Canadian lives were lost and a further 250,000 were wounded.
Most visible of Canada’s war effort was the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF), which fought throughout
France and Belgium and cemented Canada’s contribution to the war with famed battles such as 2nd Ypres,
the Somme, Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele, and the Hundred Days Offensive. As such, the historiography of
Canada’s military contributions during the war has typically focused on the CEF in North West Europe.
Unfortunately, beyond written text, little has been formulated to bring this research into the digital world.
One such potential digital project is the use of scanned Commonwealth trench maps of which the originals
date back to the battle itself. The Battle of Vimy Ridge is such a battle that has had a great deal of historical
analysis, but is lacking in in-depth map analysis. It is proposed that through the collection of historical data,
including original trench maps, and the development of a geospatial methodology; a visualization via a time
generating map software could potentially catalogue a complete detailed collation of the actions taken at
the battle by Canadian soldiers.
This presentation explored the role of Canadian soldiers at Vimy Ridge through a geographic visualization
animated over time that will highlight how the Canadian Corps advanced at Vimy Ridge. Further, Rebecca
and Trevor seek to explore in which way an inter-disciplinary and inter-university project has allowed for
a sort of collaboration that has proven vital to the success of the project.
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
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PRESERVING ONTARIO’S PAST, TODAY: OUTCOMES OF THE OCUL HISTORICAL TOPOGRAPHIC
MAP DIGITIZATION PROJECT
Kara Handren, Scholars Portal
Sarah Simpkin, University of Ottawa
Jason Brodeur, McMaster University
Initiated through a grant by the Ontario Council of University Libraries in the Fall of 2014, the OCUL Historical
Topographic Map Digitization Project is an endeavor to preserve and provide broad access to historical
topographic maps covering Ontario at the 1:25000 and 1:63360 scales. Over the past two and a half years,
participants at OCUL institutions and Scholars Portal have worked collaboratively to digitize, describe,
georeference, and make available over 1100 sheets published between 1904 and 1977. Accessible through
Scholars GeoPortal, this digitized collection provides historical snapshots that allow researchers, students,
and the general public to travel through time to explore changes in natural and human environments.
In a follow-up to our 2015 Carto presentation, we presented the entirety of the project workflow,
discussed the lessons learned and methodological improvements realized, and exhibited the project’s
outcomes via a live demonstration of the Scholars GeoPortal-based interface. Additionally, we presented a
framework and workflow for expanding this work to include all of Canada’s historical topographic maps.
ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
Facilitator: Julie Jones, Simon Fraser University
What has kept you awake at night this year? What has you inspired and excited? This session provided
participants an opportunity to engage in informal discussions around one of a number of emerging
issues in map libraries and archives. Attendees collaborated in groups to discuss challenges and
opportunities in these areas, with the purpose of improving understanding, developing potential
solutions and, at the end of the session, communicating group discussion outcomes to the larger audience.
Thursday June 22nd: Conference Presentations
KEYNOTE: CLOSED TO OPEN: A DATA AND GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
METANARRATIVE ON REAL ESTATE IN THE CITY OF VANCOUVER
Andy Yan, Director, The City Program, Simon Fraser University
Real estate in Vancouver can be a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Data visualizations
and spatial analysis can be a beacon into the murkiness of residential real estate in the City
of Vancouver. However, while tools like Geographic Information Systems software have been
at the vanguard of a digital revolution in spatial and policy analysis for almost two decades,
it is only the relatively recent advent of attitudes and practices of Open Data by local and
provincial government that has enabled researchers and scholars to comprehensively examine
and explore Vancouver’s real estate market. Without Open Data advocates, policies, practices,
and infrastructure, data on Vancouver real estate was locked behind the analog gates of cost,
acquisition, and social and professional network centric access. With the great leaps in mapping
and data visualization tools, access to reliable, transparent, and documented data needs to keep
pace and is arguably just as important as the development of the tools to analyze these datasets.
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
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UNEARTHING GEOLOGICAL HISTORY: REVEALING AND PROTECTING GSC RESEARCH THROUGH
IMPROVED METADATA AND STEWARDSHIP
Francine Berish, Morag Coyne, & Graeme Campbell, Queen’s University
Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) members were instrumental in the exploration and mapping of Canada’s
geology. The information collected over the past 174 years has been distributed as publications such
as maps, reports, monograph series (e.g. GSC Memoirs, Papers, Bulletin), and data. These publications
are valuable because geological observations remain relevant despite age; because these publications
are so detailed; and because, in general, the information cannot be found elsewhere. GSC published
series include various titles and formats. Unfortunately, these details are often omitted from brief series
catalogue records, making these treasures less discoverable for users. In an ecosystem that is progressively
digital, large physical collections like the GSC series pose significant challenges. At Queen’s University,
these important series were historically duplicated across department libraries with varying levels of
description, and, at times, different classification systems. Our project focuses on improving discoverability
and ease of retrieval for these series through the creation and enhancement of electronic catalogue
records; by co-locating maps and documents in order to create conditions for improved stewardship
and preservation; and by uniting maps with scanning equipment, information services and support.
OK, WE’VE SCANNED THE MAPS–WHAT NOW? REFLECTING ON FIVE YEARS OF MAP
DIGITIZATION
Gordon Beck & Jason Brodeur, McMaster University
With the purchase of a large-format scanner in early 2012, the McMaster University Library’s Lloyd
Reeds Map Collection embarked on a self-supported digitization program that aimed to increase
access to and use of its special and local historical collections. Through the dedicated work of staff
and students during the past five years, over 7500 maps, plans, and aerial photos have been digitized,
and nearly 10000 total items have been made discoverable, and freely and openly accessible through
the Library’s Digital Archive. As the digitization program approaches significant duration- and size-related
milestones, it presents an opportunity to reflect on its successes, challenges, and lessons-learned,
as well as discuss the broader questions that will direct its future development. Through this
talk, we explored the value of accessible, digitized map collections, while simultaneously critically
assessing their place alongside physical materials in research, teaching, and public engagement.
TIME TO TALK: SEEING, HOLDING AND SHARING PRINT MAP COLLECTIONS
Rachel Bergquist & Emily Sugerman, University of British Columbia
With the rise of the so-called “digital revolution” and in the age of “born digital,” academic libraries face
challenges regarding their existing print map collections. Some universities have opted to resolve library
space issues by deaccessioning cartographic materials, or to place their maps in permanent dark storage.
On the other hand, print maps are enduring documentary sources of the public record; there is much to be
gained from studying a print map rather than its digitised counterpart. This creates a dilemma between
seeing, holding, and sharing print maps. Institutional collaboration and enhanced partnerships can preclude
the loss of valuable collections and last copy materials on a large scale. Our presentation focused on three
universities in British Columbia (Simon Fraser University, University of Victoria, and University of British
Columbia) and their respective print map dilemmas.We outlined some of the major challenges of print
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
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map collection maintenance, and how this impacts decision-making processes in regards to sharing
and accessing print maps. We concluded by asking, will shared print map collections become the new
normal for academic libraries? Is it possible to initiate effective methods for the academic community to
see and hold print map collections that are shared across institutions and regions? We aimed to spark
conversation between map librarians about facilitating better access for hands-on collection use. It is time
to talk about the future of print map collections in a collaborative shared framework amongst institutions.
SPATIAL THINKING BY THE NUMBERS
Barbara Znamirowski, Trent University
This paper will looked at approaches to data visualization focusing on innovative methods of introducing
spatial thinking to quantitative analysis in the social sciences. Options for visualization of quantitative data
including survey microdata and aggregated statistics have evolved and now have important roles in map
and data communities. Key questions considered included: what leading visualization tools are used by
our researchers, how do statistical packages offering mapping options influence use of more traditional
mapping tools and practices, what are the key drivers for change, and what issues should client support
consider when engaging our academic communities and assisting researchers with visualizing quantitative
data spatially? Examples of diverse applications and services such as cloud services, apps, software plugins
and extensions were presented in terms of trends, relevancy and use for thinking spatially.
DIGITAL CONTENT AND MARKETING STRATEGIES TO BOOST GIS WORKSHOP ATTENDANCE
Cynthia Dietz, University of Manitoba
Digital and content marketing strategies boosted attendance at GIS workshops at the University of Manitoba
dramatically. The first strategy involved the development of a Geospatial Semester of seven basic to intermediate
workshops that would appeal to graduate students and faculty as well as undergraduates. The content of our
workshops was changed to address the top strategic research goals at the University of Manitoba. The second
strategy involved the marketing of those workshops to graduate students by the Faculty of Graduate Studies
on their webpage two weeks prior to each semester and thereafter. Not to deny all U. of Manitoba affiliates
an opportunity, identical workshops were offered to faculty, staff and all students within a day or two of the
graduate offerings. All workshops were advertised by the Library through its subject guides. Tools introduced
in the workshops seemed to be in demand. They included visualizations using maps and charts, the use of
map series, hot spot analyses showing degrees of confidence, georeferencing maps for historical analyses,
analyzing satellite imagery and shoreline change, map analysis, and the use of photos, videos and webpages
in a Story Map. Details were offered concerning the attendance and registrations by department and faculty.
MAPPING EN PLEIN AIR: PAINTING THE WAY TO EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
Francine Berish, Queen’s University
It is one thing to scan, georeference and overlay a fire insurance plan onto a contemporary base map creating
an artifact—although providing some well-needed context, these maps still require imagination. It is another
thing entirely to overlay the historic features onto a life-sized, true-to-scale context, allowing tour goers
to step into another world. Standing on the green grass in Douglas Fluhrer Park on the St. Lawrence River
in downtown Kingston, Ontario, it is hard to imagine the once dark and industrial landscape marked with
oil drums, factories and rail lines. One windy day, armed with coordinates pulled from a georeferenced fire
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insurance plan overlay, our smartphones, and some flags, a few of us conspired to bring social history to
life by transposing the historic rail lines onto the grass using field marking paint. We began by marking the
endpoints for our volunteer field painter, and by the following morning the park was transformed into an
immersive backdrop for sharing oral histories from this often overlooked Inner Harbour neighbourhood
of industrial waterfront. This project was the brainchild of Laura Murray and the Swamp Ward and Inner
Harbour History Project (SWIHHP), and in addition to the experiential learning component provided by
life-size learning, the project was also able to feature the georeferenced historical map and fire insurance
plan artefacts by passing them around during the tour as well as posting them on the project blog.
Friday June 23rd: Conference Presentations
TRANSFORMATION OF LEGAL CANADA LANDS SURVEYS RECORDS TO AUTHORITATIVE
DIGITAL RECORDS
Martin Gingras, Surveyor General Branch, Natural Resources Canada
The Canada Lands Surveys Records is a collection of official survey documents dating back to the
early 1800’s, which supports land transactions on the Canada Lands Survey System. This collection
has been appraised by Library and Archives Canada as the most valuable geospatial collection in the
Government of Canada, and includes records confirming the extent of property rights on lands such as
National Parks, Territories and First Nations lands. The transformation of legal Canada Lands Surveys
Records to authoritative digital records was an ambitious project that resulted in the transfer of the
legal value of these physical documents to an authoritative digital record, which now can be accessed
instantly on the web to support economic and social development on these lands. This session went
over the standards and the methodology used to ensure high integrity of the conversion process.
MAP DIGITIZATION AT THE CITY OF VANCOUVER ARCHIVES
Sue Bigelow and Sharon Walz, City of Vancouver Archives
In 2015, the City of Vancouver Archives participated in a multi-departmental project to digitize, geo-rectify,
and mosaic one of its most popular cartographic records, the 1912 Goad’s Atlas of Vancouver, with the goal
of presenting it as a layer in the City’s publicly accessible GIS system, VanMap.
Digital Conservator Sue Bigelow and Digital Archivist Sharon Walz discussed the genesis and execution of
the project within the context of the City of Vancouver Archives’ digitization efforts.
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
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Dear ACMLA members, friends and colleagues,
On behalf of the ACMLA Executive, we are pleased to announce that the 52nd Annual Conference
of the Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives (ACMLA) will take place in
Montreal, QC from May 28 to June 1, 2018. The conference will be hosted by McGill University,
Concordia University, and Université de Montréal, and will be held in association with IASSIST.
IASSIST is an international organization of professionals working in and with information
technology and data services to support research and teaching in the social sciences. Given that the
ACMLA and IASSIST share many common interests and members, we look forward to expanding the
scope of the Conference program to create a unique mix of data- and geospatial-focussed sessions.
We hope to see you in Montreal in 2018!
Marcel Fortin, President, ACMLA
Deena Yanofsky, Past-President, ACMLA; IASSIST/CARTO 2018 Local Arrangement Committee
Jay Brodeur, Vice President Professional Development, ACMLA; IASSIST/CARTO 2018 Program
Committee
======================================
Chers membres de l’ACACC, amis et collègues,
Le comité exécutif de l’ACACC est heureux de vous inviter au 52e congrès annuel de
l’Association des cartothèques et archives cartographiques du Canada qui aura lieu à Montréal
du 28 mai au 1er juin 2018. L’Université McGill, L’Université Concordia et l’Université
de Montréal seront les hôtes du congrès qui sera organisé en partenariat avec l’IASSIST.
L’IASSIST est une organisation internationale de professionnels travaillant avec les technologies
de l'information et les services de données pour soutenir la recherche et l'enseignement en
sciences sociales. Ayant plusieurs intérêts et membres en commun avec IASSIST, nous sommes
ravis d’élargir la portée du programme du congrès annuel avec un mélange de sessions qui
vise l'utilisation et l'appui des données numériques autant que les données géospatiales.
Nous espérons vous voir en grand nombre à Montréal en 2018!
Marcel Fortin, Président, ACACC
Deena Yanofsky, Président sortant, ACACC
Jay Brodeur, Vice-président au développement professionnel, ACACC; IASSIST/CARTO 2018 comité
de programmation
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Dear ACMLA-ACACC colleagues,
As organizational work is underway for next year's joint IASSIST / CARTO 2018 Conference in Montreal,
the Conference Program Committee Co-Chairs are seeking to fill a couple of Coordinator positions.
Coordinators work with the Program Committee (PC), the Local Arrangements Committee (LAC),
and other subcommittees to perform defined duties related to an event or element of the Conference.
Given that the ACMLA-ACACC will be working closely with IASSIST to deliver this conference, I
would like to solicit members of the Association to volunteer to be a Coordinator. Though it will
benefit a volunteer to have some experience with the event they are coordinating, the PC Co-Chairs
are also happy to create Co-Coordinator positions, where an ACMLA-ACACC member and IASSIST
member work together in this role.
The available Coordinator positions are listed below, with links to their descriptions in the IASSIST
Conference Manual
Poster Coordinator : http://iassistdata.org/conferences/manual/6807
Pecha Kucha Coordinator : http://iassistdata.org/conferences/manual/7506
If you are interested in assuming one of these positions (or would like more information), please
contact me at brodeujj@mcmaster.
Thanks and all the best,
Jay Brodeur
Mills Memorial Library
McMaster University
brodeujj@mcmaster.ca
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
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CONFERENCE PHOTOS
All photos courtesy of Quin Shirk-Luckett, University of Guelph
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
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ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
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Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
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ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
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ACMLA Awards
The ACMLA Executive was honoured to recognize two individuals for their outstanding
contributions to the Association of Canadian Map Library and Archives. Winners were
announced and recognized during the Carto 2017 Banquet.
Cathy Moulder Paper Award
The Cathy Moulder Paper Award is awarded to an individual who has researched, written and
published a paper of significant value in the ACMLA Bulletin. The paper is considered for its solid
contribution to map librarianship, curatorship or archiveship
The recipient for the Cathy Moulder Paper for 2016 is Trevor Ford, for his article, “New Tools
for Military Historians: How GIS Can Help Understand Canada’s North - West Europe Campaign”
Bulletin no. 152.
ACMLA Honorary Membership Award
The Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives (ACMLA) bestows an honorary life
membership on a member who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of map
librarianship or to a more significant understanding and appreciation of maps.
Award Recipient: Richard Pinnell, University of Waterloo
Richard Pinnell’s Nomination letter is below:
By the time Richard retired at the end of December 2011, he had been an active member of ACMLA
and the OCUL Map Group for 33 years.
He started his long career in map librarianship in 1978 at the University of Waterloo.
He worked on the ACMLA executive as Secretary (1980/81), President (1990/91 ‐1992/93) and Past
President (1993/94 ‐1995/96), and was Chair of the OCUL Map Group from 1985 to 1990.
Throughout his career, Richard served on numerous committees in ACMLA and the OCUL Map Group,
and was chair of many of them. He was also an active participant in ACMLA conferences.
He edited the ACMLA Bulletin, 1981‐1984, and he was the editor of the Bulletin’s Geospatial Data and
Software review until his retirement in 2012. He shared his knowledge through the numerous papers
and reviews he contributed to the Bulletin.
Richard has made a distinguished contribution to the map profession and to the Association through his
service and leadership roles. His never ending commitment, dedication and passion for maps and the
Association make him an ideal candidate for ACMLA’s highest award. When Richard received the 2002
ACMLA Honours Award, he said “the [ACMLA] Association is really about mutual support and mutual
encouragement.” Richard provided both to the members of the Association during his long career.
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Committees:
ACMLA:
ACMLA‐NAC Liaison Committee
Awards Committee
Copyright Committee (Chair)
Geospatial Data Access Committee (Chair)
Nomination and Election Committee (Chair)
Publications Committee
Conference Organizing Committee for ACMLA Conferences in Peterborough (1988), Guelph (1994),
Toronto (2002)
OCUL Map Group:
Map Users’ Advisory Committee
Geospatial Data Subcommittee
Other Committees:
Geoconnections Roads Network Advisory Panel
Papers:
“Non‐book cartographic materials: a survey of circulation policies and procedures.” ACMLA Bulletin,
no.81, Dec., 1991: 15-22.
“Report on the Digital Libraries Teleconference, Pennsylvania State University.” [Richard Pinnell
and Grace Welch] ACMLA Bulletin, no. 93, Spring/Summer, 1995: 12‐13.
“Geographical information systems in libraries: issues and challenges.” ACMLA Bulletin, no. 97,
Fall, 1996: 7‐12.
“Data acquisitions issues: the Canadian map libraries’ perspective.” ACMLA Bulletin, no. 107, Winter,
2000: 16‐22. Paper presented at 19th International Cartographic Association Conference /
Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives Conference, Ottawa, August, 1999.
“Forging municipal partnerships for data acquisition.” Presentation with Richard Grignon and Laura
Cole at CARTO 2001, Montreal. ACMLA Bulletin, no. 111, Spring/Summer, 2001: 21.
“TriUniversity Group of Libraries Metadata Project: developing a GIS metadata application.”
ACMLA Bulletin, no. 116, Winter, 2003: 25‐31. Paper presented at ACMLA Conference, Victoria,
2003.
“Supporting the library’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Program through reference
service.” ACMLA Bulletin, no. 119, Winter, 2004: 11‐14.
Reviews:
Street atlas USA (CD‐ROM). Freeport, Maine: DeLorme Mapping Company, 1991. (ACMLA Bulletin, no.
84, Sept., 1992)
Historical atlas of Canada volume II: the land transformed. R. Gentilcore, ed. Toronto: University of
Toronto Press, 1993. (ACMLA Bulletin, no. 92, Jan., 1995)
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
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FME Professional Suite (FME 2002, Build 159) Surrey, BC: Safe Software Inc. (ACMLA Bulletin, no.
112, Fall, 2001)
Surficial geology of Southern Ontario. Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines,
Ontario Geological Survey, Sedimentary Geoscience Section. Miscellaneous Release. Data 128,
2003. (ACMLA Bulletin no. 118, Fall, 2003)
The enclosure maps of England and Wales 1595‐1918: a cartographic analysis and electronic
catalogue. Roger J. P. Kain, John Chapman and Richard R. Oliver. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2004. (ACMLA Bulletin, no. 126, Spring/Summer, 2006)
Web mapping illustrated. Tyler Mitchell. O’Reilly Media Inc., 2005. (ACMLA Bulletin, no. 128, Winter,
2007)
Second Life, another viewpoint. San Francisco: Linden Research Inc. (ACMLA Bulletin, no. 130, Fall,
2007)
Awards:
At the 1995 ACMLA Annual General Meeting, Richard was presented with a gift in recognition of his
service to the Board ( ACMLA Bulletin, no. 94, pg 29).
2001 ACMLA Paper Award for Richard’s article in Bulletin, no 107 on data acquisition uses (ACMLA
Bulletin, no 111, pg 31).
2002 ACMLA Honours Award (ACMLA Bulletin, no 114, pg 51-52).
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
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Conference Paper
VIMY AT 100: NEW METHODS FOR UNDERSTANDING AND
COMMUNICATING THE BATTLE OF VIMY RIDGE
Rebecca Bartlett, Carleton University
Trevor Ford, Wilfrid Laurier University
This past April 9th, 2017, thousands of people
marched solemnly up a lonely road to the
Canadian National Vimy Memorial. Amongst the
masses included Prime Ministers, Presidents,
Ministers, Royalty, Soldiers, men, women, and
children, all there to honour, and acknowledge
the 100th Anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
Canada’s Governor General, David Johnston, was
one of many that gave a speech that day, but what
he said, struck a chord of remembrance: “Today,
one hundred years later, we honour their eternal
sacrifice. We mourn their loss.”1 Perhaps no
other words speak to what Vimy Ridge is today
to the Canadian public, a long-ago moment of
national sacrifice that clouds our very public
memory of a long-ago battle in a faraway place.
The Great War represents a watershed moment
for Canada. During the course of four years,
620,000 Canadians were mobilized of which
67,000 Canadian lives were lost and a further
250,000 were wounded. Most visible of Canada’s
war effort was the Canadian Expeditionary Force
(CEF), which fought throughout France and
Belgium and cemented Canada’s contribution to
the war with famed battles such as 2nd Ypres,
the Somme, Passchendaele, and the Hundred
Days Offensive. Perhaps though, there is no
greater example of the CEF’s lore than that
of Vimy Ridge. Over the course of three days,
almost 3600 Canadians died, and over 7000
were wounded while unknown thousands
of Germans were killed and wounded with
a further 4000 captured by the Canadians.
To put this all together, Canada and Vimy Ridge
are synonymous, and the public memory of it is
as strong as Remembrance Day and Memorial
Day. This being said, the reality, according to the
historians, is very different. Today, the historical
community is split on the actual meaning of
the battle and the public memory as well as
the context and outcomes of one of Canada’s
costliest battles. What is known, is that there is
much historical and academic study to be done
of the subject. Currently, the historiography
of Canada’s military contributions during the
Great War, including that of Vimy Ridge, has
typically focused on the CEF. Unfortunately,
beyond written text, and historical summaries,
little has been formulated to bring this
research into an interactive and digital world.
Adapting traditional historical studies to the
digital world is fraught with dangers for both
the historian and the public alike. Without
proper support, the historian is potentially
producing work that is either outdated or
worse, false. Perhaps the holy grail of fixing
this potentially calamitous outcome is inter-disciplinary
work, that requires the historian
to reach out of his or her echo chamber and
into the frightening waters of other disciplines.
Rebecca Bartlett and Trevor Ford are an
example of this, by exploring the historical and
digital gap of the Battle of Vimy Ridge through
combining their disciplines and individual skills.
Being that there is plenty of academic discovery
to be had in terms of the battle, both academics
thought to bring their individual skills of
mapping and historical research together to
explore the subject in a new and unique way.
Both Trevor and Rebecca have a passion for
Canadian military history, a subject that Trevor
is completing his PhD in history on. Meanwhile
Rebecca had completed a project on the
subject of Vimy Ridge during the course of her
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
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Advanced Diploma in GIS Technology. Trevor
had the access to and the necessary know-how
to engage the plethora of historical documents
on the battle and Rebecca had the GIS skills
and knowledge to make an online geographic
visualization, forming, in their eyes, a “dream
team” of military history geographic visualization.
The Battle of Vimy Ridge was divided into a
number of different stages each with a different
objective line, which generally corresponded
to identifiable topographical features such as
German trenches, shell craters, ditches or roads.
Each objective line was given a code name
(Black, Red, Blue, and Brown, sequentially),
divided into segments, and every segment was
assigned to a battalion. For the Canadians, there
were 38 infantry battalions from 16 Brigades
which made up the four divisions of the CEF
responsible for over 80 individual objective line
segments during the Vimy offensive. For this
project to be successful, it was necessary to find
out which battalion was responsible for each
segment and when they reached each objective.
Focusing on primary documents was a critical
component of the project and there was
extensive use of two specific types of resources:
war diaries and trench maps. During the Great
War, each battalion wrote war diaries that were
comprised of daily reports of the unit’s activities.
Details such as locations, times, and specific
actions were recorded and were invaluable
resources when piecing together the actions of
the entire battle from start to finish. Library and
Archives Canada has scanned and made available
all the war diaries from the First World War2,
and it was predominantly from those documents
that time and objective details for each battalion
were found. Connecting written locations
such as “the 19th Battalion held a line from
ZWISCHEN STELLUNG A.5.c.5.5 to Thelus Road”3
to a geographic location in northwestern France
required the use of First World War trench maps,
specifically those updated between January and
April 1917 and which had labeled trenches.
While a trench map scanned and provided by
the Canadian War Museum was used to digitize
all the the trenches and plot the locations of
individual battalions, McMaster has an extensive
collection of First World War trench maps and
excellent instructions on how to read map reference
numbers such as A.5.c.5.5 in the quote above.
Broadly speaking, the workflow was comprised
of recording detailed objective and time
information from the war diaries in a spreadsheet,
documenting the sources of the information,
joining the data to corresponding digitized
trenches from the trench map, and generating
a visualization of the front line movement in
15-minute intervals for Divisions 1, 2, and 3 of the
Canadian Expeditionary Force. The generation of
lines at 15-minute intervals was done in ArcMap
10.4 using a process of assigning an integer “time
code” to each segment of the objective line that
corresponded to the time it was reached by the
assigned battalion (e.g.: 0 for 5:30 a.m. April 9,
1917, the time the infantry began attacking; 1
for 5:45 a.m.; etc.). Points were generated at
10m intervals along each objective line, and
Natural Neighbour interpolation was used to
create a surface that corresponded to time
instead of elevation. Contours were created at
an interval of 1, the contours were merged with
the original shapefile of coded objective lines,
and manual cleanup of the dataset deduplicated
and gave precedence to known locations. The
shapefile was converted to GeoJSON using
QGIS 2.18 for use with the online visualization.
Rebecca felt strongly that the final visualization
should be viewable in an internet browser
without any specific plugins, downloads, or extra
software. While this was eminently doable it was
not without technical challenges, not the least
of which was the choice of platform. Showing
change over time was a critical component of
the visualization and eliminated several online
mapping platforms, and this was compounded
by the fact that many online mapping tools
change functionality over time and may, in
fact, become unexpectedly defunct.4 In the end,
Rebecca decided to use the D3 JavaScript library
to code the visualization and make it openly
available via GitHub.
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
23
A lofty and ultimately unachievable goal
in the 2-week coding timeframe, software
developer Jim Ellwood stepped in and did
much of the critical coding, notably making
D3 and the multiple plugins (Chroniton and
L.D3SvgOverlay) function in tandem. The final
product is viewable at https://bartlettr.github.
io/VimyRidge/.
Currently, the project has completed the
movements of three of the four Canadian
divisions involved in the battle. The final
division, the 4th Canadian Division, took
insurmountable casualties on April 9th, and
were forced to continue fighting until their
objectives were taking on the 11th. This has
meant that the 4th Divisional records are sparse,
ever changing, and lacking in detail compared
to other divisions’ paperwork. Both Trevor
and Rebecca are hoping to complete the 4th
Division’s movements by the end of August, 2017.
Meanwhile other facets of information can be
added to the map. This includes making the
website more interactive beyond its current
form, including adding battalion areas of
responsibility and possibly inserting the
preceding artillery barrage that happened over
the course of the battle. This could potentially
bring an all-arms approach to Canadian actions
at Vimy Ridge. There are also some tweaks
to make to the visualization, such as adding a
legend and making it obvious when a user has
already clicked a line segment. We’ve made
great leaps and bounds with establishing
workflows but it is still a work in progress.
Link to presentation: https://goo.gl/32xe1j
1http://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/speech-by-the-governor-general-of-canada-at-the-ceremony-
commemorating-the-100th-anniversary-of-the-battle-of-vimy-ridge-618757524.html
2https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/firstworldwar/025005-1000-e.html
319th Canadian Infantry Battalion war diary, April 1917, Vol. 4, pg. 5, http://data2.collectionscanada.
ca/e/e045/e001105157.jpg
4RIP, GeoCommons
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
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REVIEWS
Compiled by Sarah Simpkin
Cartographies of Disease: Maps, Mapping,
and Medicine
Reviewed by Virginia Pow
Koch, Tom. Cartographies of Disease:
Maps, Mapping, and Medicine. Redlands,
CA: Esri Press, 2017. 412p. $79.99. ISBN:
9781589484672.
Tom Koch is a self described ethicist, writer and
researcher who has been working in the areas of
elder care, medical geography, disease mapping,
cycling, transportation and online information.
His wide breadth of knowledge combined
with his cartographic abilities have come
together to create another fascinating read. As
a previously published author (Mirrored Lives
1990; A Place in Time, 1993; Watersheds, 1994;
Second Chances, 1998; and In Cartographies of
Disease: Maps, Mapping, and Medicine 2005),
Koch has created another well researched work
with Cartographies of Disease: Maps, Mapping,
and Medicine. Koch is currently an Adjunct
professor of Medical Geography at the University
of British Columbia; as well as the Director
of Information Outreach, Ltd. in Toronto, ON.
In the original 2005 version of Cartographies
of Disease: Maps, Mapping and Medicine, Koch
did an excellent job of describing the history
of infectious diseases and how maps have been
used for over 300 years to look at and study these
diseases. The first 12 chapters have been edited
to contain some new information and updates,
however, the biggest updates are the additions
of Chapters 13 and 14. Chapter 13 specifically
looks at diseases from 1691 to 2015 and includes
numerous maps looking at Ebola and its social
implications. Chapter 14 looks specifically
at Ebola and how the outbreaks reached
epidemic conditions. The chapter thoughtfully
contained information related to space, as
well as the economic, cultural, and geopolitical
characteristics that were signal contributors to
the 2014 epidemic. In the author’s words, with
this information “we have a better chance of
an earlier and more complete understanding
of the next one, whenever it arrives.” (366).
Virginia Pow, Librarian
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
Getting to Know ArcGIS Pro
Reviewed by René Duplain
Law, Michael and Amy Collins. Getting to
Know ArcGIS Pro. First edition. Redlands,
CA: Esri Press, 2016. 424p. $84.99 USD. ISBN:
9781589484573.
Getting to Know ArcGIS Pro, first edition is
another entry in the best-selling Getting to Know
series and part of the Esri Press book resources.
This book introduces ArcGIS Pro and is intended
for new and existing GIS users. There are 10
chapters spanning topics such as visualizing,
querying, analyzing, and presenting geospatial
data in 2D and 3D using ArcGIS Pro 1.0 and 1.1.
Each chapter provides numerous step-by-step
exercises that each mimic a unique project with
its own dataset and that can be done in any order.
While not intended to be a comprehensive look
at all the capabilities and functions of ArcGIS
Pro, the book was meant to provide enough
content for students to complete in a semester-long
class and come out with the ability and
understanding to work with the software on
their own, regardless of previous knowledge in
GIS or other Esri products.
The first two chapters focus on the basics of GIS
and getting familiar with the interface of ArcGIS
Pro. Chapters 3 and 4 explore how to connect
data, calculating statistics, using geodatabases,
as well as creating and modifying features.
Chapter 5 is all about facilitating workflows,
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
25
which includes learning to use tasks; a new
feature introduced in ArcGIS Pro that improves
workflows and the documentation of steps.
The rest of the chapter touches on useful-but-
familiar GIS procedures such as using
ModelBuilder and Python scripts for automation
and standardization. Chapter 6 explores various
crowdsourcing options to produce collaborative
maps and how to prepare a database or map
for data collection. Amongst other things, it
incorporates an exercise using Collector for
ArcGIS on a mobile device that then links to
ArcGIS Pro. Chapter 7 specializes in geocoding
and geoprocessing tools. Nearer the end of the
book, the focus shifts on working with raster
data analysis, analyzing spatial and temporal
patterns, and working with 3D data in chapters
8 and 9. Finally, chapter 10 brings it back to the
basics with how to present a project and adds
a new twist on sharing a project in ArcGIS Pro.
Overall, the book is a useful first look at ArcGIS
Pro and a general introduction to GIS. It also
integrates ArcGIS Online throughout many
chapters as it is closely tied to Pro. Those with
no previous background in GIS would perhaps
get the most out of this book, as several exercises
explore concepts and processes already familiar
to experienced ArcGIS Desktop users. However,
anyone looking for a quick and easy look at
ArcGIS Pro will find something to like here,
particularly in the later chapters. The convenient
hand-holding nature of the exercises combined
with the many snapshots make the exercises
fly by. The authors have also included many
useful tips throughout the exercises to improve
efficiency, as well as “Remind Me How” boxes
for clarity. The “On Your Own” sections offer
suggestions to build on the exercises, should the
reader wish to continue down the rabbit hole. On
the other hand, this book is not recommended
for those looking for an in-depth, comprehensive
look at ArcGIS Pro covering every single new
feature and tool. The exercises sometimes end
somewhat prematurely, showcasing a single
tool or the first few steps of a more complex
operation. In the end, Getting to Know ArcGIS
Pro offers a useful and easy-to-use introduction
to this relatively new Esri product and would
make a welcome addition to any academic
library’s collection.
René Duplain, Data Analyst
University of Ottawa
Ottawa, Ontario
Map Use: Reading, Analysis, Interpretation
Reviewed by Peter Genzinger
Kimerling, A. Jon, Aileen R. Buckley, Phillip C.
Muehrcke, and Juliana O Muehrcke. Map Use:
Reading, Analysis, Interpretation. Eighth
edition. Redlands, CA: Esri Press Academic,
2016. 650p. $105.00 CDN. ISBN 1589484428.
Now in its eighth edition, Map Use has become
a well-known resource since the first edition
was published in 1978. Readers of this journal
may remember the review of the seventh
edition by Peter Peller in Bulletin 140, 2012,
pp. 44-45. As noted in that review, three of the
authors are academics involved in the fields of
geography and geosciences, one is currently a
research cartographer with Esri, and the fourth
a freelance writer.
The current edition follows the same format as
the previous one, and is divided up into three
main sections: “Map Reading,” which is really
about the process of map creation, and deals
with topics such as coordinate systems, scale,
projections, map design basics, and accuracy;
“Map Analysis,” which includes chapters on
distance and direction finding, navigation,
analysis of spatial features, surfaces, and
spatial patterns; and, “Map Interpretation,”
which looks at the interpretation of various
geographic features presented on maps, such as
the lithosphere, atmosphere and biosphere, and
human landscape. A closing chapter on “Maps
and Reality” ends the book on an important
note by highlighting the fact that maps are
not “reality,” pointing out the ways maps can
be abused, can obfuscate or misrepresent,
and can also be put to imaginative uses.
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
26
What is new with this edition? The authors
point to the addition of “one new chapter, and
some 50 new four-color illustrations, added
to the 500-plus in the previous edition.” The
new chapter, “Map Basics,” is considered
important because “it focuses on an integral
component of map use—how to design your
own map and to comprehend when someone
else designs a good map.” (p. x). Other new
features include new illustrations linked to
online animated and interactive maps through
QR codes, a new index, and an enhanced glossary.
The audience for this work is broad—perhaps too
much so—being written “...for those who need to
know how to use maps to build or enhance their
spatial understanding of the world,” (ix) Later,
we are told it has been “...specifically designed
and tested for use in a three-credit semester
course of 15 weeks at the college freshman
level…” and that the presentation “...is intended
for the upper high school to intermediate college
level... aimed at both the specialized and general
map user.” (p. ix) The diverse needs of such an
audience can, and here do, lead to problems in
presentation. These issues, and others outlined
below, should be given serious consideration
before purchasing the latest edition.
First, there is the new content in this edition.
In comparing pagination, the 2016 edition at
650 pages appears to have added 69 pages
in total over the 2011 volume. A closer look
reveals this is misleading; the new volume
has had its contents repaginated, starting the
numbering for the introduction at page 2,
where this section was previously paginated
as i-xxviii, and thus gaining 26 pages merely
through changing the page numbers. Much of
the book also appears to be nearly identical to
the previous edition. Chapters 2 and 7 appear
almost identical apart from the enlargement of
a few maps, the addition in Chapter 7 of a map
on “The Invasion of America,” (with QR code)
and a few additional titles added in “Selected
Readings.” With respect to Chapter 6, the new
chapter on “Map Basics,” a good portion is not
new at all. Of the 24 pages in this chapter, fully 6
have been directly taken from Chapter 10 in the
7th edition. Additionally, while the authors claim
the book has been re-indexed, the new index is
3 pages shorter than the earlier addition and
there actually appear to be fewer index entries.
And while the inclusion of QR codes linking to
online maps is an interesting update, the 9 added
codes in total are a fairly slim contribution.
Secondly, the individual chapters are uneven
in their level and quality of content and
presentation. Overall, the quality of writing is
excellent, and this edition continues the tradition
of the others in its clarity of language, and a
logical, easy to follow layout. The book stands out
with respect to plentiful use of figures, graphics
and colours to illustrate cartographic concepts.
Chapter 9 on “Relief Portrayal” is particularly
well done, with abundant images illustrating the
varied ways relief can be portrayed, from hachure
and shading techniques to LIDAR imagery.
The unevenness of the presentation, however,
begins right at the first chapter, diving quickly
into fairly complex concepts, and at a high level
of detail: the earth as a sphere, the graticule,
earth as an oblate ellipsoid, horizontal and
vertical reference datums (with examples such
as NAD83, European Datum of 1950 and its
relation to the International Ellipsoid of 1924).
Undoubtedly it is important for students of
cartography to know the difference between the
NAD27 AND NAD83 horizontal reference datums
at some point, and that on topographic maps
that “the NAD83 position of the map corner is
shown by a dashed plus sign” (p. 37) but perhaps
the first chapter of a general, introductory
text aimed at the “upper high school” level
is not the best place to introduce this topic?
The illustrations are also uneven in quality.
Many of the maps and diagrams are clear,
multicoloured, and easy to read. Some are quite
good; for example the numerous reproductions
of topographic maps from the US Geological
Survey, the Canadian Hydrographic Service
maps (p. 364 and 366), and the colourful and
crisp examples of imagery used in the chapter
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
27
on “Image Maps.” Others, however, look like
they have been copied and pasted at a low
resolution from other sources; notably the
numerous examples from the Atlas of Oregon,
which have pixelated titles and blurred text
(see examples on pp. 157,173, and 175). The
time composite map (p. 210) used to portray
losses by Napoleon’s army in the Russian
campaign of 1812 is practically illegible.
This leads to the next troublesome aspect of
the book. It is disconcerting to find so much
discussion in what is ostensibly a textbook
being given over to commercial applications
and examples. How many senior high school or
even first year undergraduate students will find
it helpful to know the detailed workings of the
“Mercedes-Benz COMMAND navigation system,”
(p. 360) such as how to enter destinations,
determine routes, and display options? The same
goes for the description given for the Garmin
GPS Chartplotter and Aviation units. The authors
seem to anticipate this issue with their claim that
“a few decades ago, discussing these commercial
products would have seemed strange since
most mapping was done by large government
agencies…” (p. x). The National Geographic
Society, Rand McNally, MapArt, and numerous
other commercial map-producing entities
might find this claim a rather dubious one.
Perhaps the most egregious example occurs with
the Jeppesen Internet Flight Planner: like the
other commercial products in the book, a good
bit of text is given over to detailed description
as to how to use this application for flight
planning. How astonishing, then, to find that
this application is no longer supported by the
software manufacturer, but was to be “sunsetted”
as of January 2015 (http://ww1.jeppesen.com/
personal-solutions/aviation/jeppesen-internet-flight-
planner.jsp, accessed June 20, 2017).
The fact that this example was included and
not even updated from the previous edition
furthers the overall impression of unevenness
and sloppiness in editing and presentation.
Other minor annoyances appear. At one point in
a discussion of “Map Critique,” to determine if
good map design guidelines have been followed,
the reader is told to “Check online for a map
critique checklist” (p. 143). This advice seems
inappropriate given the scholarly credentials
of the authors. Not surprisingly, the second
result that comes up when searching on those
terms online is a resource from Esri. Would it
have been too onerous for the authors to create
and include an original checklist of their own?
Map examples are heavily weighted to those
from the USA, and specifically the US Northwest,
and the states of Oregon and California. Perhaps
not surprisingly, many of the maps are included
from the co-authors’ previous work; specifically
the 2003 Atlas of the Pacific Northwest, and the
2001 Atlas of Oregon, co-edited by Kimerling
and Buckley, respectively. Also not surprising,
given this book is published by Esri Press, are
the preponderance of maps “courtesy of Esri.”
Finally, this points to a recurring theme in this
volume, the many appearances of Esri. There are
multitudinous references to Esri applications
such as ArcGIS Explorer, ArcGIS Earth, and
ArcGIS Online. The authors also introduce new
terminology—image maps (p. 247), and story
maps (pp. 8, 11-12) - that are really unique to
Esri and not widely-known terms in the map
world. These continual references often give
the volume the appearance of a marketing
booklet rather than a scholarly textbook
Other notable gaps in the content include:
almost no discussion of what a geographic
information system actually is and how it has
influenced the modern act of map reading,
something especially baffling given all the Esri
examples peppered throughout the text; little
discussion of the differences in reading older
maps vs. modern maps; sparing discussion
of some of the biggest commercial digital
mapping products such as Google Earth and
Google Maps, which have revolutionized how
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
28
many people interact with maps on a daily
basis—perplexing given the appearance of the
many other almost unknown, by comparison,
commercial products; and no discussion of
open source mapping and related movements
such as open data and volunteered geographic
information and how these have impacted
how people create and interact with maps.
Map Use probably works best as a reference
book, as the chapters provide good detail for
someone who wants to dive into a single subject
on an irregular basis. If you are looking for a
similar work that discusses the process of map
reading and interpretation, Judith A. Tyner’s The
World of Maps: Map Reading and Interpretation
for the 21st Century is also a clear, well-written
book aimed at a comparable audience, and
at approximately $70 CDN for the hardcover
edition, is worth considering. If you have a copy
of the previous edition, you will probably want
to wait before spending another $105.00 CDN.
It would benefit readers considerably if the
authors contemplated completely overhauling
the next edition, with more consideration of who
this text is intended for, more careful attention
given to detail and consistent presentation of
graphics, and less overt product placement.
Peter Genzinger, Geography Librarian
Wilfrid Laurier University Library
Waterloo, Ontario
Heard about any new and upcoming books on
geospatial topics? To suggest potential titles
for review, please contact Sarah Simpkin at
sarah.simpkin@uottawa.ca
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
29
From the Reviews Editor:
Thanks to those who submitted book reviews and to all who have expressed interest in reviewing! I’ll
continue to request review copies from publishers - but please let me know if you have read a book of
interest to the ACMLA and would like to submit a review, and if you have any suggestions for titles/sources.
Here are the review guidelines:
ACMLA Bulletin Book Review Guidelines
Review Format
1. Bibliographic Citation
This should include: author, title, edition, place of publication, publisher, date, number of pages, price (if
known) and ISBN. Example:
Bussey, Ben and Spudis, Paul D. The Clementine Atlas of the Moon. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2004. 316p. $80.00 US. ISBN 0-521-81528-2.
2. Content
The review should describe and critically evaluate the work. Typical review elements include: scope, purpose
and content of the work; intended audience; writing style; background and authority of the author; how the
work compares with other titles on the same subject; its usefulness as a research tool; any unique features;
and its suitability for library collections.
The length of the review is at the reviewer’s discretion, but should normally reflect the importance of the
work. A typical review is about 500 words.
3. Your name, title, institutional affiliation, city and province/state
Editorial Policy
Opinions expressed in reviews are those of the reviewer, not of the ACMLA. The Reviews Editor may make
minor edits, without communicating with the reviewer. Should the Editor determine that a major revision
is required, she will contact the reviewer for discussion.
Sarah Simpkin
Reviews Editor
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
30
Alberta
Edmonton Map Society
David Jones
“Friendly” Geology / Wildfires and Water Security
There were two speakers at the Edmonton
Map Society Spring meeting which took place
on Wednesday, May 17th at Claridge House
The first presenter was Rastislav Elgr, B.Sc., GISP, a
GIS Specialist with the Alberta Geological Survey,
Alberta Energy Regulator (mailto:rastislav.elgr@
aer.ca). Mr. Elgr’s presentation was titled Bringing
Geology to Everyone through Interactive Web
Maps and Open Data Site; the abstract follows:
In early 2015, the Alberta Geological Survey
and Alberta Energy collaborated to create a set
of interactive web maps including the Alberta
Interactive Minerals Map (AIMM) . The main goal
of this project was to provide the general public,
mineral exploration industry and government
easier access to previously published geology
and mineral data, in a modern and cost effective
way. We used a combination of ESRI’s ArcGIS
Online and Open Data technologies to create the
interactive web maps and provide easy access to
the data directly from the map interfaces. In this
presentation, I showed how we delivered spatial
geological information to our stakeholders in a digital
interactive format; and I highlighted the advantages
over traditional hard copy delivery methods.
Rastislav’s PowerPoint presentation is available
on request. Please contact me, David Jones
(david.jones@ualberta.ca) , if you would like to
have a copy of the file.
The second presenter was Francois-Nicolas
Robinne, a PhD candidate in Forest Biology
REGIONAL NEWS
Compiled by Marilyn Andrews
and Management at the University of Alberta
(robinne@ualberta.ca). His presentation was
titled More People, More Fires, Less Water:
Exploring Wildfire Risks to Water Security in a
Changing World. See abstract below.
Recent major fire events (e.g. Horse River Fire, Rim
fire) have raised public attention on water quality and
quantity issues induced by fire-related changes in the
hydrological cycle. Vegetation combustion indeed
triggers a range of cascading effects that can greatly
enhance runoff-erosion processes, thereby increasing
water transport capacities eventually leading to higher
downstream flow volumes and pollutant loads.
Such alteration of surface water resources may
pose a threat to human and natural communities
and compromise the provision of a safe drinking-water
supply or reliable environmental flows.
Protecting freshwater resources from dangerous
situations is at the core of the water security
paradigm, although threats emerging after a blaze
have not received much interest so far. Despite a large
corpus of studies showing the potentially deleterious
effects of fire on watershed functioning, research
pieces focusing on water supply issues remain
too rare and are even inexistent at a global scale.
My work explores the spatial potential for the
occurrence of the wildfire-water risk (WWR) at
a global scale through the water security lens. I
defined the WWR as “the potential for wildfires
to adversely affect water resources important for
downstream ecosystems and human water needs for
adequate water quantity and quality”. I mainly used
indexation modelling, a simple method commonly
used to represent complex processes and widely
applied to global scale studies. My research, as
a “flag in the ground”, provides a first worldwide
vision of the present and future patterns of the WWR.
Mr. Robinne’s PowerPoint presentation slides
are available upon request by sending a message
to him at the email address listed above.
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
31
Ontario
Carleton University
Sherri Sunstrom
Goodbye / Hello
1. Joël Rivard has moved to University of Ottawa
where he has accepted a one year term as GIS
Librarian.
2. Carys Carrington, Data & GIS technician
has moved departments. Carys was offered,
and accepted, a one-year career development
opportunity; she is now working as an Analyst
in Institutional Research and Planning.
Queen’s University
Francine Berish
Treasures buried within the Geological Survey
of Canada (GSC) Series
Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) members were
instrumental in the exploration and mapping of
Canada’s geology. Published GSC series include
various titles and formats. Unfortunately, these
details are often omitted from brief series
catalogue records, making these treasures
less discoverable for users. Queen’s University
Libraries (QUL) is currently undertaking a
project focussing on improving discoverability
and ease of retrieval for the Geological Survey
of Canada (GSC) series through the creation and
enhancement of electronic catalogue records;
by co-locating maps and documents in order to
create conditions for improved stewardship and
preservation; and by uniting maps in a library
space with scanning equipment, information
services and support.
A link to the supporting CARTO 2017 presentation
is available at https://osf.io/k8yhm/
University of Toronto
Leanne Trimble
Welcome! / Places to Go
Nadia Muhe joined U of T as Statistical Support
Specialist in January 2017. Nadia holds a master’s
degree in biostatistics and a bachelor’s degree in
statistics and human biology from the University
of Toronto. Nadia has previously worked as
a data analyst with the Council of Ministers
of Education, and at Mount Sinai Hospital.
Kelly Schulz joined U of T as Data Visualization
Librarian in April 2017. She has a Bachelor of
Applied Science (Computer Engineering) and
a Master of Information (Library Science) from
the University of Toronto. She has previously
worked as Data & GIS Librarian at the University
of British Columbia, and as Subject Librarian
for Engineering and Computer Science at the
University of Oxford.
The Map & Data Library launched their new
website in mid-August at http://mdl.library.
utoronto.ca. This brings data & GIS services
together in one site, with an integrated search tool.
Western University
Cheryl Woods, Christine Homuth
Georeferencing Public Domain Air photos
/ Fire Insurance Plans / Roper / RTRA /
Organizational Change
Over the course of the past two years, Casual
and Library Assistants at the Map and Data
Centre have worked towards georeferencing
our collection of London air photos that
are in the public domain. These are used
extensively by students, staff, and faculty as
well as consultants from London and beyond.
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
32
This summer, our Casual Assistant has shifted
the focus to the Fire Insurance Plans (FIPs)
for London. Google Analytics was used to
determine the most popular set which was to
act as the starting point. This was 1922 with
2234 pageviews followed by the year 1888
which had 1572 views, over the course of the
past year (May 2016 through April 2017).
The goal is to have these two years completed
and uploaded by the end of the summer and
continue with the next FIPs in the fall term.
View the scanned FIPs here https://www.lib.
uwo.ca/madgic/fips.html
Western Libraries will begin a subscription
to both the Roper Centre for Public Opinion
Research and Statistics Canada Real Time
Remote Access (RTRA ).
The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research,
located at Cornell University, is one of the
world’s leading archives of social science data,
specializing in data from public opinion surveys.
The Center’s mission is to collect, preserve, and
disseminate public opinion data; to serve as a
resource to help improve the practice of survey
research; and to broaden the understanding of
public opinion through the use of survey data
in the United States and abroad. Founded in
1947,the Roper Center holds data ranging from
the 1930s, when survey research was in its infancy,
to the present. Its collection now includes over
23,000 datasets and adds hundreds more each
year. In total, the archive contains responses from
millions of individuals on a vast range of topics.
The RTRA system is an on-line remote access
facility allowing users to run SAS programs,
in real-time, against microdata sets located in
a central and secure location. A full range of
descriptive statistics is available through the
Real Time Remote Access tool. RTRA users
can calculate frequencies, means, medians,
percentiles, proportions, ratios, and shares.
Western Libraries has been undergoing an
Organizational Renewal Initiative for the past
2 years and the proposed Organizational Model
and Structure was released June 22, 2017. Under
the new model and structure, once implemented,
the Map and Data Centre will no longer exist
as it has. Cheryl will report to Archives and
Special Collections and oversee the Cartographic
Collection (current and archival); Vince Liz
and Christine will be under Research and
Scholarly Communication, providing data and
GIS service. The implementation of the changes is
dependent on several factors, to be worked out. ,
ACMLA Welcomes New Members!
Honorary Member:
Richard Pinnell
Waterloo, Ontario
Student Member:
Rachel Bergquist
Vancouver, BC
rachelrbergquist@gmail.com
Full Member:
Tommy Lavallee
Université de Montréal
Montréal, QC
t.lavellee@umontreal.ca
Anne Hakier
Montréal, QC
anne.hakier@umontreal.ca
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
33
NEW CARTOGRAPHIC RESOURCES: MAPS, ATLASES, AND BOOKS
Compiled by Cheryl Woods
This column offers a list of new cartographic-related publications, including maps, books, and atlases. It
replaces the previously published columns, “New Maps” and “New Books and Atlases”, merging them to
offer one list for the readers.
MAPS
Jamaica Road Map
Collins
2017
ISBN 9780008227999
Battle of the Aisne (Chemin des Dames) 1917
IGN
2016
ISBN 9782758538479
Submarine Cable Map 2017
TeleGeography
Interactive - http://submarine-cable-map-2017.
telegeography.com/
Great Britain: Westminster Parliamentary
Constituencies Map
Stanfords
2017
ISBN 9786000552749
Schweiz
Kummerly Frey
2017
ISBN 9783259011027
Tartans Map of Scotland
Collins
2017
ISBN 780008183707
Castles Map of Scotland
Collins
2017
ISBN 9780008183714
Uxbridge Countryside Preserve & Area
Chrismar Mapping Services Inc.
2017
ISBN 0929140052
Uxbridge South Central Strip Topo
Chrismar Mapping Services Inc.
2017
ISBN 0929140036
ATLASES
Ontario Bicycle Touring Atlas
Bike ON Tours
2016
ISBN 9781927391648
The Human Atlas of Europe: A Continent United
In Diversity
University of Chicago Press
2017
ISBN 9781447313540
The Red Atlas: How the Soviet Union Secretly
Mapped the World
University of Chicago Press
2017
ISBN 9780226389578
Historical Population Atlas of the Czech Lands
University of Chicago Press
2017
ISBN 9788024635774
Lloyd’s Maritime Atlas of World Ports and
Shipping Places 2018
Routledge
2017
ISBN 9781138049239
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
34
Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals 2017: From
World Development Indicators
Interactive - http://datatopics.worldbank.org/
sdgatlas/
National Atlas of Lithuania : Volumes I & II/ Lietuvos
nacionalinis atlasas : I & II tomas
GIS-Centras Nacionaline Zemes Tarnyba Prie Zemes
Ukio Ministerijos Vilniaus Universitetas
2016
ISBN VOL 1 - 9786099579412
ISBN VOL 2 - 9786099579429
Great Britain & Ireland Main Roads Atlas 2018
Michelin
2017
ISBN 9782067217508
France Road Atlas 2018
AA Publishing
2017
ISBN 9780749578725
Multiscale Europe Road Atlas 2018
Philip’s
2017
ISBN 9781849074216
Mapa Oficial de Carreteras Espana
Ministerio de Fomento
2017
ISBN 9788449810084
Poland Road Atlas
Marco Polo
2017
ISBN 9783829736879
Concise Atlas of the World
Times
2017
ISBN 9780008183769
South Vancouver Island : greater
Victoria/Duncan/Ladysmith & Gulf Islands
Davenport Maps Ltd
2017
ISBN 9781896888125
BOOKS
Emerging GIS Applications for Emergency and
Disaster Management
Shruti Mantri and Seema Purohit
2017
ISBN 9781683180098
GIS and Environmental Monitoring: Applications in
the Marine, Atmospheric and Geomagnetic Fields
Stavros Kolios, Andrei V. Vorobev, Gulnara R.
Vorobeva and Chrysostomos Stylios
2017
ISBN 978-3319530840
Volunteered Geographic Information and the Future
of Geospatial Data
Cláudio Elízio Calazans Campelo, Michela Bertolotto
and Padraig Corcoran
2017
ISBN 9781522524465
Map Librarianship: A Guide to Geoliteracy, Map and
GIS Resources and Services
Susan Elizabeth Ward Aber and Jeremy Aber
2016
ISBN 9780081000212
Spatial Analytics with ArcGIS
Eric Pimpler
2017
ISBN 9781787122581
Open the Door to GIS: Teacher’s Edition
Toni Fisher and Gary Sherman
2017
ISBN 9780998547701
Maps and Civilization: Cartography in Culture and
Society, Fourth Edition
Norman Thrower
2017
ISBN 9780226007434
Create a thematic map in 60 minutes: Examples
with QGIS
Stamatis Kalogirou
2017
ISBN 9781520917863
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
35
GIS SOFTWARE AND DATA REVIEWS
Compiled by Tomasz Mrozewski
Geography Products for the 2016 Census of Population
Reviewed by Tomasz Mrozewski, Laurentian University
2016 Census geography and GIS software
products were initially released in November,
2016 with updates in 2017. The 2016 roster
features many products that will be familiar
from previous years, reskinned online tools,
and a whole new unit within the Standard
Geographical Classification. This review will
focus on a few new and updated features of the
2016 Census geography products.
Aggregate Dissemination Areas
Aggregate Dissemination Areas (ADAs) “are
created from existing dissemination geographic
areas and are formed from census tracts (CTs),
census subdivisions (CSDs) or dissemination
areas (DAs)” and cover the whole country in
units of 5,000-15,000 people with the goal of
“ensur[ing] the availability of census data, where
possible, across all regions of Canada”1 while
respecting province/territory, census division
(CD), and tracted census metropolitan area (CMA)
and census agglomeration (CA) boundaries.
The introduction of ADAs should make it
possible to access data for sub-census division
geographies that might otherwise be suppressed
due to confidentiality issues. However, it’s not
immediately evident what purpose ADAs will
serve in tracted CMAs and CAs with larger and
denser populations. The ADA doesn’t immediately
or obviously answer any outstanding issues
this reviewer has faced in the past several
years of data and GIS reference work, but its
true value may become evident in the future.
Individual reference maps are available for
each CD in Canada showing all ADAs2 and ADA
boundary files are also available3.
GeoSuite
GeoSuite 2016 is now available as a web-based
tool on the Statistics Canada website as well as
the downloadable, MS Access-based format of
yesteryear.
The downloadable GeoSuite is essentially
unchanged since its first appearance in 2001
(excepting the addition of new geographical
units such as the ADA), by this point seeming
charmingly retro if clunky. GeoSuite remains
a useful tool for exploring and extracting data
for geographical units within the hierarchy
of the SGC but its limitations are becoming
apparent. It is disappointing that the application
still only contains the current and previous
census year’s data; despite five census’ worth
of data in four editions of GeoSuite, the 2016
edition only incorporates 2016 and 2011 data.
It also unfortunate that the application only
gives dwelling and population counts without
incorporating any additional data points. One
wonders if the downloadable GeoSuite product
line will be discontinued for future censuses
should the web-based version prove successful.
The web-based GeoSuite4 takes much of the
same functionality and places it in a single, more
streamlined interface. This interface incorporates
various features of the downloadable application
as panes in a single web page: the name and code
search into one entry field with the chart search
appearing next to it; search results are given for
1Dictionary, Census of Population, 2016, “Aggregate dissemination area (ADA)” http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/ref/dict/
geo053-eng.cfm
2Aggregate Dissemination Area (ADA) Reference Maps, 2016 http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/geo/ADA/ADA-eng.cfm
32016 Census - Boundary files http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/geo/bound-limit/bound-limit-2016-eng.cfm
4GeoSuite, http://geosuite.statcan.gc.ca/geosuite/en/index
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
36
2016 and 2011 population and dwelling counts,
alongside a bar chart comparing both years’ data
and a reference map showing the geographical
entity in question with an option for overlaying
2011 boundaries; at the bottom of the page
results are given for the geographies selected
in the chart search, which also provides export
options.
The web-based GeoSuite is a welcome
development and should be especially useful
for any students trying to use the service
from a public computer where installing the
downloadable version wouldn’t be permitted.
The bar chart and reference map features are
welcome additions and we hope that these are
not the end of new developments for GeoSuite:
as well as incorporating multiple previous
census’ data and more detailed information
from the Census Profiles, it would be great to see
integration of GeoSearch within GeoSuite so that
the reference map could also serve as a discovery
tool. The only real problem with the web-based
GeoSuite is that it currently doesn’t link out to
any Census Profiles or tabular information other
than the Geographic Attribute File; however, this
may change as the remainder of the standard
census products are released later in 2017.
GeoSuite users should note that Statistics Canada
has identified errors in both the 2016 and 2011
versions of GeoSuite and reissued corrected
versions of both of these products on June 1, 2017.
A notice of the correction was issued through the
Data Liberation Initiative (DLI) mailing list at
that time but there does not appear to be any
mention of this on the Census Program website.
GeoSearch
The interactive, map-based search tool
GeoSearch5 has a fresh coat of paint and some
changes to the way it displays results. The
new GeoSearch is much quicker and slicker
than the old versions which, though archived
on the website, haven’t preserved their full
functionality. Whereas the 2006 and 2011
iterations of GeoSearch linked to limited sets of
census information, the new version provides
a much more comprehensive set of links to
data and analytical products and reference and
thematic maps from the 2016 and 2011 censuses.
When selecting the province of Ontario, for
example, the search results link to 222 data
products, 28 analytical products, and 10 maps.
The main problem with the new GeoSearch is
that the interactive map itself is a bit finicky. The
options to display and remove boundaries and
to specify the geographic levels to search are not
located in the same menu and are not intuitively
placed. More importantly, the level of zoom
determines which level of geography can be
selected: it is impossible to select sub-provincial
levels of geography (such as CDs) when all or
most of a province is visible on the map, even if
sub-provincial boundaries are displayed. This
can be rather annoying and requires undue
zooming and panning to select sub-provincial
geographies. It is also exacerbated by the
lack of a deselect feature, which also makes it
difficult to select a sub-provincial geography
or to confirm that you have selected if you have
already erroneously selected the province. This
issue persisted in current versions of Chrome,
Firefox, and Internet Explorer. Also, the display
window is on the small side, even when enlarged.
Positional accuracy strategies
Statistics Canada has been improving the
accuracy of its road network data through
convergence, the “alignment of the existing
road network to externally available GPS-compliant
authoritative provincial sources.”6
This also means that “Statistics Canada’s
dissemination geographies will better integrate
with other spatial datasets originating outside of
Statistics Canada such as the provincial sources
and municipal topographic data.” The results of
this process will be included in 2016 geography
products for British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario,
Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince
Edward Island.
Is there a dataset or software application you’d like to
see reviewed? Would you like to contribute a review?
If so, contact section editor Tomasz Mrozewski at
tmrozewski@laurentian.ca
5GeoSearch, http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/geo/geosearch-georecherche/index-eng.cfm
6What’s new for 2016,http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/geo/geosuite/new-neuf-eng.cfm
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
37
GIS TRENDS
Barbara Znamirowski
bznamirowski@trentu.ca
Editor’s Introduction
This past month I had the pleasure of attending the ACMLA Carto 2017 conference. This was just one of a
number of conferences related to mapping and spatial technologies that took place this summer, each with
impressive programs and speakers lists. The issues discussed and presented provide a fascinating window
on what we are thinking about and where we are heading. Few of us can attend as many conferences as
we might wish, and so sharing papers and write-ups provides us with some insights into what happened,
enabling us to keep in touch with colleagues and with trends in our field.
My thanks are extended to Ms. Els Aelvoet for providing her report of the 2017 Canadian Cartographic
Association conference, and to Dr. Roger Wheate from the University of Northern British Columbia, who
facilitated this submission to GIS Trends.
Barbara Znamirowski, Editor, GIS Trends
A SUMMARY OF THE 2017 CONFERENCE OF THE CANADIAN CARTOGRAPHIC
ASSOCIATION: “150 YEARS OF CARTOGRAPHY: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE”
ELS AELVOET
The 42nd Annual Conference of the Canadian Cartographic Association was held, May 31st - June 2nd, at
Carleton University. Inspired by the 150th birthday of Canada, the guiding theme of this year’s conference
was “150 Years of Cartography: Past, Present and Future”.
The venue for the conference was the Richcraft Hall, formerly known as the River Building at Carleton
University. The Hall, with its signature open space and beautiful patio overlooking the Rideau River, formed
an excellent venue for a well-attended conference with students, researchers, educators, and professionals
from different levels of government and the private sector participating.
A highlight of the conference was the variety of events held each day. Each successfully bonded the
conference together into one congruent whole, while providing ample opportunities to network. The
conference kicked off with a guided tour of the Canadian Museum of History, followed by a trivia Icebreaker
event on Wednesday evening, and a Wine and Cheese reception on Thursday evening.
There was a map display and poster contest throughout the conference, for which the final results were
announced during the Annual General Meeting on Friday afternoon. The conference closed with an
orienteering contest on the Carleton University Campus, followed by drinks and dinner at the Barley Mow pub.
With about 30 presentations in total, the participants were particularly able to immerse themselves in
their much-loved interest of maps.
The conference sessions began Thursday morning with an insightful talk, by keynote speaker Ian Crain
from the Orbis Institute, on the Canadian Geographic Information System (CGIS) and the amazing story
of rescue and recovery of the entire CGIS databank. The morning continued with an introduction to the
sequence and series of topographic mappings that laid the foundations for the thorough mapping of
Canada, and then how historic topographic maps and historical spatial data have been made available
for research as well as public use. The morning ended with a deep-dive into the techniques that enabled
historians a clearer visualization of the battle for Vimy Ridge.
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
38
Figure 1: Group attendee photo taken on the patio, Richcraft Hall, Carleton University. Photo Credit: Alberta Auringer Wood
The afternoon continued with discussions of current map applications and techniques. Keynote speaker
Chris Brackley from As the Crow Flies cARTography, demonstrated how the design of maps can enable
map-readers to interpret the sometime abstract concept of maps. Additional presentations addressed some
current techniques, research results and challenges regarding how maps are deployed to explain crucial
information to those needing to know. NRCan also provided an overview of their geospatial offerings and
shared some future plans.
On Friday, a prognosis was given on the future of mapping. The keynote presentation by Fraser Taylor from
Carleton University challenged the audience to reflect on the need for cartographers to take control of their
future destiny and not allow technology to drive their response.
A quick snapshot of the afternoon presentations indicated a promising and abundant diversity of possibilities
for the future, supported by an active and dynamic community of cartographers: i.e. Structure in Motion
technology, the current approaches that employ Deep Learning Neural Networks, testing route-finding
efficacy, mapping spatial patterns of urban travel with open source tools, a new method for line simplification,
investigations concerning impact of restaurant proximity on public health, and the potential as well as
limitations of cartographic applications that are dedicated to the representation of stories and its use for
mapping life stories of refugees. The day concluded with a technical session on the Web Mercator Projection
and Raster Tile Maps.
In 2018, the CCA conference will be held at Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia at the Centre of Geographic Science
(COGS), May 30-June 2. Details of the 2017 program and at a future date the 2018 meeting are on the CCA
website (http://cca-acc.org).
About the author: Els Aelvoet, a first time attendee of the CCA Conference, lives in Ottawa and
has her Masters in Geography, from the University of Ghent, Belgium. She describes herself as
a Geographer with a big passion for anything related to GIS, maps and remote sensing. Besides
her desire to keep learning, she is also on the lookout for new and challenging GIS opportunities.
GIS Trends: Note from the Editor
Submissions and Feedback
GIS Trends is a place to share ideas, observations and discoveries in the area of GIS and other
spatial technologies. If you have something you would like to share please write to me. We also
welcome feedback on GIS Trends articles. Proposals for articles and feedback should be sent to:
bznamirowski@trentu.ca Thanks for reading and contributing! Barbara Znamirowski, Editor, GIS Trends
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
39
2017 ACMLA MEMBER LIST
Honorary Members / Membres honoraires
Lorraine Dubreuil
lorraine.dubreuil@mcgill.ca
Cathy Moulder
moulder@mcmaster.ca
Richard Pinnell
Serge Sauer
Yves Tessier
Grace Welch
gwelch@uottawa.ca
Joan Winearls
joan.winearls@utoronto.ca
Members / Membres
Paige Andrew
Maps Cataloging Librarian
Pennsylvania State University
pga2@psu.edu
Marilyn Andrews
Geography Liaison Librarian
University of Regina
Marilyn.Andrews@uregina.ca
Mary-Ellen Badeau
Archivist – Cartographic Records
Provincial Archives of New Brunswick
mary-ellen.badeau@gnb.ca
Rebecca Bartlett
GIS and Digital Resources Librarian
Carleton University Library
rebecca.bartlett@carleton.ca
Colleen Beard
Head, Map, Data & GIS Library
Brock University
cbeard@brocku.ca
Gordon Beck
Map Specialist
McMaster University Library
beckg@mcmaster.ca
Francine Berish
Geospatial Data Librarian
Queen’s University
Stéfano Biondo
Géothécaire or Map and Gis Librarian or cartothécaire
Université Laval
stefano.biondo@bibl.ulaval.ca
Daniel Brendle-Moczuk
GeoSpatial Librarian
University of Victoria
danielbm@uvic.ca
Jason Brodeur
Manager, Maps, Data, GIS
McMaster University Library
brodeujj@mcmaster.ca
P. Louise Buck
Chris Burns
Research Support & Data Services Librarian
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
chris.burns@kpu.ca
Andrew Cook
dalrymple.research@yahoo.co.uk
Dana Craig
York University
dcraig@yorku.ca
Edward Dahl
Andrew Dalip
Dalmart (Sales & Services) Limited
dalmart.sales@gmail.com
Cynthia Dietz
GIS Environmental Studies Librarian
University of Manitoba
cynthia.dietz@umanitoba.ca
This list represents the current membership as of July, 2017
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
40
Eva Dodsworth
Geospatial Data Services Librarian
University of Waterloo Library
edodsworth@uwaterloo.ca
Danial Duda
Map Librarian
Memorial University of Newfoundland, Map Room
dduda@mun.ca
Monica Ferguson
Cartographic Specialist
Carleton University Library
monica_ferguson@carleton.ca
Marcel Fortin
GIS and Map Librarian, Head -- Map and Data Library
University of Toronto Library
marcel.fortin@utoronto.ca
Judith Fox
Map Librarian
University of Reading Library
j.a.fox@reading.ac.uk
Bonnie Gallinger
Maps Assistant/Public Service Assistant
University of Alberta Libraries
bonnie.gallinger@ualberta.ca
Peter Genzinger
Librarian
Wilfrid Laurier University Library
pgenzinger@wlu.ca
Claire Gosson
Geographer (Retired)
National Atlas of Canada
Alex Guindon
GIS and Data Services Librarian
Concordia University
alex.guindon@concordia.ca
Anne Hakier
Bibliothécaire
Université de Montréal
anne.hakier@umontreal.ca
Jordan Hale
Original Cataloguer & Reference Specialist
University of Toronto Library
jordan.hale@utoronto.ca
Siobhan Hanratty
Data/GIS Librarian
University of New Brunswick
hanratty@unb.ca
Brian Jackson
Librarian
Mount Royal University
bjackson@mtroyal.ca
Dan Jakubek
GIS and Map Librarian
Ryerson University
djakubek@ryerson.ca
David Jones
Map Librarian Emeritus
University of Alberta Libraries
david.jones@ualberta.ca
Julie Jones
GIS & Map Librarian / Librarian for Geography
Simon Fraser University
jsj7@sfu.ca
Tommy Lavallee
Chef de bibliothèque
Université de Montréal
t.lavallee@umontreal.ca
Amber Leahey
Metadata Librarian
Scholars Portal, Ontario Council of University
Libraries
amber.leahey@utoronto.ca
Catherine Leduc
Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières
Catherine.leduc@uqtr.ca
Teresa Lewitzky
Library Associate
University of Guelph
tlewitzk@uoguelph.ca
Carina Xue Luo
Geospatial and Data Analyst
University of Windsor
carina@uwindsor.ca
David Malaher
david@malaher.org
Lori Martin
Cartographic Applications Officer
Ontario Ministry of Transportation
lori.martin@ontario.ca
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
41
Susan McKee
Geospatial Librarian
University of Calgary
smckee@ucalgary.ca
Gavin Moore
Technician
Provincial Archives of New Brunswick
gavin.moore@snb.ca
Tomasz Mrozewski
Data, GIS and Gov Docs Librarian
Laurentian University
tmrozewski@laurentian.ca
Andrew Nicholson
Coordinator, GIS & Research Data Services
University of Toronto Mississauga
andrew.nicholson@utoronto.ca
Rosa Orlandini
Map and GIS Librarian
York University
rorlan@yorku.ca
Erika Reinhardt
Archivist
Library and Archives Canada
erika.reinhardt@bac-lac.gc.ca
Joel Rivard
Cartographic Specialist
Carleton University Library
joel.rivard@carleton.ca
Léon Robichaud
Professeur agrégé
Université de Sherbrooke
leon.robichaud@usherbrooke.ca
Tracy Sallaway
Data Technician
Trent University
Kelly Schultz
University of Toronto Library
kelly.schultz@utoronto.ca
Quin Shirk-Luckett
University of Guelph
qshirklu@uoguelph.ca
Sarah Simpkin
GIS and Geography Librarian
University of Ottawa Library
sarah.simpkin@uottawa.ca
Rhys Stevens
Librarian
University of Lethbridge Library, The
rhys.stevens@uleth.ca
Sherri Sunstrum
Cartographic Specialist
Carleton University Library
Sherri_sunstrum@carleton.ca
Petra Thoms
World of Maps
pthoms@worldofmaps.com
Rudolf Traichel
Map Cataloguer
University of British Columbia
rudi.traichel@ubc.ca
Leanne Trimble
Data and Geospatial Librarian
Scholars Portal, Ontario Council of University
Libraries
leanne.trimble@utoronto.ca
Simon Trottier
Conseiller en systèmes d’information géographique
Université de Sherbrooke
simon.trottier@usherbrooke.ca
Wenonah van Heyst
Instructional Associate
Brandon University
fraserw@brandonu.ca
Laura Walton
Coordinator, Geographic Resources Centre
York University
lwalton@yorku.ca
Dr. Roger Wheate
University of Northern British Columbia
wheate@unbc.ca
Susie Wilson
Data Services Librarian
University of Northern British Columbia
susie.wilson@unbc.ca
Alberta Wood
Retired
Memorial University of Newfoundland
awood@mun.ca
Cheryl Woods
Western University
cawoods@uwo.ca
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
42
Kathleen Wyman
kwyman@torontopubliclibrary.ca
Deena Yanofsky
Map and Geospatial Data Librarian
McGill University
deena.yanofsky@mcgill.ca
Barbara Znamirowski
Head, Maps, Data & Government Information Centre
Trent University
bznamirowski@trentu.ca
Student members
Heather Adams
Rachel Bergquist
Martin Chandler
Trevor Ford
Azada Rahi
hragtky@hku.hk
Institutional Subscribers
Alexander Turnbull Library
Archives nationales du Québec
Archives of Ontario Library
B.C. Institute of Technology
Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec
Bodleian Libraries
British Library - Map Library
Brock University
Carleton University Library
Clark University
Dalhousie University Libraries
Dartmouth College
Duke University
Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto
FSD Library Services
Indiana University Libraries
Library and Archives Canada
McMaster University Library
Memorial University of Newfoundland, Map Room
National Library of Scotland, Maps
New Brunswick Museum
Newberry Library
Nipissing University/Canadore College
Northwestern University Libraries
NRCan Library
Ohio State University Libraries
Princeton University Library
Provincial Resource Library
Pusey Library
Ryerson University
Society and Recreation Dept - Toronto Public Library
State University of New York – Binghamton
Syracuse University Library
Texas A & M University
Toronto Public Library
Trent University
Université de Moncton
Université de Montréal
University of Alberta Libraries
University of British Columbia
University of Georgia Libraries
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
43
University of Illinois
University of Melbourne
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota Libraries
University of New Brunswick
University of Ottawa Library
University of Saskatchewan
University of Toronto Libraries
University of Toronto Scarborough
University of Victoria
University of Washington
University of Waterloo Library
University of Windsor
University of Winnipeg
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Western University
Wilfrid Laurier University
Wilfrid Laurier University Library
York University
ISSN 0840-9331

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ASSOCIATION OF CANADIAN MAP LIBRARIES AND ARCHIVES
BULLETIN
ASSOCIATION DES CARTOTHÈQUES ET ARCHIVES CARTOGRAPHIQUES
DU CANADA
NUMBER 156 / SPRING/SUMMER 2017 NUMERO 156 / PRINTEMPS/ÉTÉ/ 2017
ASSOCIATION OF CANADIAN MAP LIBRARIES AND ARCHIVES /
ASSOCIATION DES CARTOTHÈQUES ET ARCHIVES CARTOGRAPHIQUES DU CANADA
MEMBERSHIP in the Association of Canadian Map Libraries and
Archives is open to both individuals and institutions having an interest
in maps and the aims and objectives of the Association. Membership
dues are for the calendar year and are as follows:
Full (Canadian map field)... $65.00
Associate (anyone interested)... $65.00
Institutional... $65.00
Student... $20.00
Members receive the ACMLA Bulletin, the official journal of the
Association, which is published three times a year.
Officers of the Association for 2017/2018 are:
Peuvent devenir MEMBRES de l’Association des cartothèques et
archives cartographiques du Canada tout individu et toute institutions
qui s’intéressent aux cartes ainsi qu’aux objectifs de l’Association.
La cotisation annuelle est la suivante:
Membres actifs(cartothécaires canadiens à plein temps)... 65,00$
Membres associés (tout les intéressées)... 65,00$
Institutions... 65,00$
Étudiant... 20,00$
Le Bulletin de l’ACACC sera envoye aux membres trois fois par
annee.
Les MEMBRES DU BUREAU de l’Association pour
l’anne 2017/2018 sont:
Views expressed in the Bulletin are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the
view of the Association.
The Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives gratefully acknowledges the financial
support given by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Les opinions exprimées dans le Bullein sont celles des collaborateurs et ne correspondent pas
nécessairement à celles de l’Association.
L’Association des cartothèques et archives cartographiques du Canada remercie le Conseil de
recherches en sciences humaines du Canada pour son apport financier.
Vice President/ President Elect/ Vice-président / Président élu
daniel Brendle-Moczuk
Maps and GIS librarian
McPherson Library
University of Victoria
Victoria, B.C.
danielbm@uvic.ca
Past President / Président sortant
Deena Yanofsky
Liaison Librarian
Humanities & Social Sciences Library
McGill University, Montréal, Québec
past-president@acmla-acacc.ca
Treasurer / Trésorier
Rebecca Bartlett
GIS and Digital Resources Librarian
MADGIC, Carleton University Library
Carleton University, Ottawa, ON
treasurer@acmla-acacc.ca
Secretary / Secrétaire
Julie Jones
GIS & Map Librarian | Librarian for Geography
Research Commons, W.A.C. Bennett Library
Simon Fraser University
secretary@acmla-acacc.ca
President / Président
Marcel Fortin
Head, Map and Data Library
Map and Data Library
130 St George St, 5th Floor
Toronto, Ontario
president@acmla-acacc.ca
Vice President Communications and Outreach / vice-président aux
Communications et Rayonnement
Tracy Sallaway
tracysallaway@gmail.com
Vice President Professional Development / vice-président au
Développement professionel
Jason Brodeur
Manager, Maps/Data/GIS
Mills Memorial Library
McMaster University, Hamilton, ON
brodeujj@mcmaster.ca
ACMLA MAILING ADDRESS / ACACC ADRESSE D’AFFAIRES
Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives /
Association des cartothèques et archives cartographiques du Canada
PO Box 60095
University of Alberta Postal Outlet
Edmonton AB T6G 2S4
http://www.acmla.org
ACMLA Bulletin index available at http://toby.library.ubc.ca/resources/infopage.cfm?id=187
Bulletin Staff / Collaborateurs
Editor:
Eva Dodsworth
Geospatial Data Services Librarian
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario
edodsworth@uwaterloo.ca
New Cartographic Resources Editor:
Cheryl Woods
Map & Data Centre
Western University
London, Ontario
cawoods@uwo.ca
Reviews Editor:
Sarah Simpkin
GIS and Geography Librarian
University of Ottawa
Ottawa, Ontario
sarah.simpkin@uottawa.ca
Regional News Editor:
Marilyn Andrews
Data Librarian and Geography Liaison
Librarian
University of Regina Library
University of Regina
Regina, Saskatchewan
marilyn.andrews@uregina.ca
Geospatial Data and Software
Reviews Editor:
Tomasz Mrozewski
Data, GIS and Government Documents
Librarian / Bibliothécaire pour les
données, les services géospatials et les
documents gouvernementaux
Laurentian University Library and
Archives / Bibliothèque et archives,
Université Laurentienne
Sudbury, Ontario
tmrozewski@laurentian.ca
GIS Trends Editor:
Barbara Znamirowski
Maps, Data and Government Information
Centre (MaDGIC)
Thomas J. Bata Library
TRENT UNIVERSITY
Peterborough, Ontario
bznamirowski@trentu.ca
BULLETIN DE L’ACACC
NUMÉRO 156 PRINTEMPS/ÉTÉ 2017
ACMLA BULLETIN
NUMBER 156 SPRING/SUMMER 2017
Table of Contents
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE - Marcel Fortin 2
CARTO 2017 CONFERENCE SUMMARY, June 20-23 4
ACMLA AWARDS 18
VIMY AT 100: NEW METHODS FOR UNDERSTANDING 21
AND COMMUNICATING THE BATTLE OF VIMY RIDGE
- Rebecca Bartlett and Trevor Ford
REVIEWS 24
Cartographies of Disease: Maps, Mapping, and
Medicine - Virginia Pow
Getting to Know ArcGIS Pro - René Duplain
Map Use: Reading, Analysis, Interpretation
- Peter Genzinger
REGIONAL NEWS - Marilyn Andrews 30
NEW CARTOGRAPHIC RESOURCES - Cheryl Woods 33
GEOSPATIAL DATA and SOFTWARE REVIEWS 35
- Tomasz Mrozewski
GIS TRENDS - Barbara Znamirowski 37
ACMLA MEMBERSHIP LIST 39
ON THE COVER...
Plan of Edmonton Settlement N.W.T. M. Deane. [Ottawa], Dominion Lands Office,
1883.
Published in 1986 by ACMLA. Reproduction sponsored by the Glenbow-Alberta
Institute, Calgary, Alberta.
ACML Facsimile Map Series No. 123 (ISBN 0827-8024
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
2
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Many will most likely be surprised to see my name as president of the ACMLA this year. It has already been
over ten years since I was last on the executive committee of the association. I agreed to offer my services to
the committee for the simple reason that I still believe in the association despite many issues our community
is currently facing and that its continued sustainability is an issue. The association no longer has very little
in the way of a revenue stream, we have dwindling membership, and member attention is increasingly
divided between various other groups.
My own doubts were quickly dissipated in June at the annual conference in Vancouver. As usual, the
incredible work and the quality of presentations by our colleagues convinced me anew that the ACMLA
is THE professional GIS, map, and data library community in Canada. As Deena Yanofsky so ably put it at
CARTO; our unique community comes together at the annual conference to learn from each other. And, I
would add, we do it while having fun, because the ACMLA is also a group of friends!
Without a doubt I have a learning curve ahead of me in the upcoming year as president but I am lucky to
have a great group of colleagues who are extremely dedicated who are continuing in their roles on the
executive. In fact, I would like to thank Jason Brodeur, Deena Yanofsky, Rebecca Bartlett, Tracy Sallaway
and Julie Jones for their great work over the past few years and for continuing on with me in this year of
transition on the executive committee. Thanks as well to Daniel Brendle-Moczuk for agreeing to become
president-elect. A special thank you as well to Siobhan Hanratty for all her excellent work over the last few
years on the executive, and for convincing me to accept the ACMLA challenge once again.
I will represent this community to the best of my abilities, but mostly, I want to listen to members of the
association. We need to have discussions about our work as we do at CARTO. But we also need to continue to
discuss the future of our association. It is a question of our continued viability to be able to discuss openly
issues that affect our community and our association.
As most of you know, over ten years ago I proposed a change to the association name. I continue to believe
our name to be outdated and that it in fact probably hinders us in our growth. I would love to hear member
opinions on this type of issue and would be glad to open up the topic again in a discussion on the ACMLA
listserv.
Marcel Fortin, President
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
3
MESSAGE DU PRÉSIDENT
Plusieurs seront surpris de ma décision de faire partie de nouveau du comité exécutif de l’ACCAC cette année.
Il y a déjà plus d’une dizaine d’années depuis ma dernière participation dans le comité comme président.
J’ai décidé d’offrir mon service pour la simple raison que je crois toujours en notre communauté. Nous
passons certainement à travers un temps difficile à l’heure actuelle. En effet, la durabilité de l’association
est même en question. Nous avons un coffre vide, nous avons de moins en moins de membres, et d’autres
groupes portent l’attention de nos membres. Bref, j’aimerais faire partie de la solution pour faire revivre
notre association.
Si j’avais mes propres doutes de l’importance de l’ACACC, celles-ci sont disparues à Vancouver avec CARTO
2017. Avec la qualité des présentations et le travail toujours impressionnant de nos collègues, je fus
convaincu que cette communauté de professionnels en SIG, cartographie, et bibliothéconomie fait encore
partie de mon développement professionnel. Comme Deena Yanofsky l’a si bien dit pendant à Vancouver,
l’ACACC et CARTO représentent une communauté unique pour nous avec laquelle nous pouvons apprendre
les uns des autres. Tout en s’amusant, j’ajouterais. Nous travaillons fort comme groupe, mais nous savons
aussi nous divertir ensemble, parce que l’ACACC représente aussi un groupe d’amis.
Je dois avouer que j’en ai beaucoup à apprendre en reprenant le poste de président. Mais je suis chanceux
de bénéficier d’excellents collègues dans le comité qui, je suis sûr, pourront me guider et continuer de servir
très bien la communauté. Je remercie Deena Yanofsky, Jason Brodeur, Rebecca Bartlett, Tracy Sallaway et
Julie Jones, qui continueront leur travail comme membres du comité cette année. Je tiens à remercier Daniel
Brendle-Moczuk, aussi un nouveau venu dans le comité pour avoir accepté le poste de vice-président.
J’aimerais aussi remercier Siobhan Hanratty pour tout son excellent travail ses dernières années comme
présidente – et de m’avoir convaincu d’accepter ce challenge.
Je ferai mon possible de bien représenter notre communauté, mais surtout de vous écouter. J’encourage
tous les membres, donc, de me faire parvenir toutes idées, plaintes, et suggestions au sujet de l’association.
Je crois que la solution pour la durabilité de l’ACACC viendra à travers la participation de tous ses membres
en continuant à définir ce qu’est l’ACACC.
Comme vous le savez probablement j’ai proposé, il y a déjà plus de dix ans, de changer le nom de l’association.
La communauté n’était pas prête à faire ce grand changement à l’époque. Personnellement, je continue
à croire que le nom de l’association ne reflète toujours pas notre communauté et qu’il nous nuit parfois.
J’aimerais donc entendre les opinions des membres de la communauté à ce sujet d’une nouvelle identité
pour l’ACACC. Je suis prêt à en discuter sur la liste acmla-acacc-l s’il y a un appétit pour le faire dans la
communauté.
Marcel Fortin, Président
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
4
CARTO 2017
http://acmla-acacc.ca/carto2017/
51st Annual Conference of the Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives (ACMLA)
June 20-23, 2017
Vancouver, British Columbia
Digital Revolutions | Analog Renaissance
The digital revolution has brought about considerable change for both users and stewards of
cartographic and geospatial information: Advances in imaging technologies have facilitated
a mass digital migration of physical collections; the rise of “born digital” cartographic and
geospatial information has transformed how collections are developed and used; and expanding
mandates for open scholarship are actively changing the expectations for managing and
distributing this information. While this “digital transition” has introduced novel opportunities
for gathering, investigating and sharing, it has also presented a variety of new challenges
to be addressed. In addition, the expansion of digital collections has not left their analog
counterparts obsolete; rather, it has provided an opportunity for critical reflection on the role
of physical collections, and their persisting value to research, pedagogy and public engagement.
Conference Organizers:
•Julie Jones, Simon Fraser University Library, Local Arrangements Committee Chair
•Jay Brodeur, McMaster University Library, Program Committee Chair
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
5
June 20th - June 23rd, 2017
Tuesday June 20th : Pre-Conference Workshops
Building “deep” maps of the Great War: Critical information and modern
approaches for developing integrated, interactive map exhibits using historical
resources
Rebecca Bartlett, Carleton University
Gordon Beck & Jason Brodeur, McMaster University
Trevor Ford, Wilfrid Laurier University
Corresponding with Canada’s 150th anniversary, the ongoing centenary of the First World War
provides Canadians with an occasion to rediscover stories from a conflict that helped shape the identity
of a nation. Among the many modes for communicating these experiences and events, interactive
digital maps–or “deep maps”–provide a unique and powerful means of presenting information and
engaging audiences. By interacting with diverse types of digitized historical materials arranged
in both time and space, the user is afforded a media-rich, multidimensional experience of a story.
To this end, the goal of this workshop was to enhance participants’ understanding of cartography and
history of the Great War, and to develop their skills for using digital historical materials to create interactive
and integrative map exhibits. Through a series of integrated information sessions and hands-on activities,
participants reinforced their learning by discovering and developing materials, and building their own
interactive map exhibit using one (or multiple) platforms. In the process, the workshop content addressed
a number of common issues related to historical GIS development.
Instructional elements of this workshop included:
•Cartography and the great war: historical context; understanding and using grid reference systems; finding
cartographic resources.
•Finding and understanding materials from the Great War
•Tackling common issues in HGIS
•Creating geospatial information from historical materials
•Developing ‘deep maps’: An introduction to a variety of platforms for creating interactive map exhibits.
CARTO 2017 CONFERENCE SUMMARY
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Wednesday June 21st: Conference Presentations
KEYNOTE: INDIGENOUS MAPPING IN CANADA
Andrew Thompson, The Firelight Group
This session introduced the concept of indigenous mapping in Canada and outlined how First
Nations are using GIS technologies to advance their interests within the context of environmental
assessment. Mapping plays a critical role in communicating different perspectives of land use.
BRINGING SPATIAL APPROACHES INTO THE HUMANITIES
Julie Jones, Simon Fraser University
This presentation discussed strategies for introducing GIS and spatial thinking to researchers in the
Humanities, with a focus on literature students. It can be a leap for this population of learners to think of
the content they study as “data” or as something that can be visualized spatially. Dealing with these and
other barriers was addressed as approaches that are non-intimidating, accessible, and that also meet non-spatial
learning objectives were shared.
SPATIAL HUMANITIES: EXPLORING OPPORTUNITIES IN THE HUMANITIES AT DH@GUELPH
Quin Shirk-Luckett & Teresa Lewitzky, University of Guelph
How can spatial exploration and mapping help you develop new understandings and unique perspectives
of fictional and historical material? Arguably all topics of research in the Humanities have some
relationship with space. Everything happens somewhere. The general popularity and ubiquity of tools
such as GPS and Google Maps have engendered a new level of spatial awareness. Suddenly academics
are presented with the opportunity to turn their bits of paper into bytes of data and create digitized
versions of previously analog artefacts of history, culture, and literature. This spatial analysis yields
new ways to engage with the information, revealing new patterns, trends and understanding. Not
surprisingly, there has been a steady uptake in GIS usage among Humanities academics. The results of
which have been visually powerful and in many cases offer new perspectives on long studied topics.
In 2016, and again in 2017, we had the opportunity to offer a week-long hands-on course introducing spatial
humanities through DH@Guelph summer institute. We examined primary archival source materials; walked
and mapped a fictional text; created spatial data; learned GIS processes and techniques; and explored tools
for creating online exhibits of artefacts, research, and maps. We used a heavily experiential and active
learning approach to immerse the class in spatial insight, while also learning technical skills, and having fun!
SPATIAL TOOLS IN THE HUMANITIES CLASSROOM: TALES FROM THE FRONTLINES OF A
FACULTY-LIBRARIAN COLLABORATION
Deena Yanofsky & Nathalie Cooke, McGill University
Faculty-librarian collaborations are a frequent topic of discussion in the professional literature and often
seen as the gold standard associated with student information literacy and IL curriculum integration on
campus. Opportunities for blended, faculty-librarian course instruction, however, tend to be rare; librarians
tend to be limited to teaching skills-based workshops or one-shot sessions rather than fully integrated into
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disciplinary courses. Over the past few years, increased interest in digital scholarship has renewed attention
toon the role of librarians and, in particular, the contributions that GIS and data librarians can make to both
undergraduate and graduate education in the classroom. Courses in digital scholarship curriculum strongly
reflect key aspects of librarianship, including open access, sustainable formats and tools, archives and archival
theory, data sharing, information ethics, metadata, openness, and digital publication. Digital scholarship on
campus provides librarians with new and meaningful opportunities to imbue syllabi and pedagogical styles
with the values of librarianship. This session will focus on a collaboration between a disciplinary faculty
member and a data librarian to create and teach a digital humanities course. From librarian and archivist class
visits to information and digital literacy focused projects and assignments, this course blended disciplinary
concepts and course content with critical lessons on digital publication, data evaluation and usage, and archival
theory to produce digital projects. The presenters provided an overview of the course design and syllabus,
showing examples of class assignments, and shared student feedback in an effort to extract best practices, as
well as some of the lessons learned, that will help others looking to build similar on-campus collaborations.
HGIS USING ARCGIS ONLINE
Marcel Fortin, University of Toronto
This presentation focussed on the development of Historical GIS projects using ArcGIS Online. Macel
demonstrated useful methods, tools and templates that can be used to build applications that can bring life
to historical maps and data.
VIMY AT 100: NEW METHODS FOR UNDERSTANDING AND COMMUNICATING THE BATTLE
OF VIMY RIDGE
Rebecca Bartlett, Carleton University
Trevor Ford, Wilfrid Laurier University
The First World War represents a watershed moment for Canada. During the course of four years, 620,000
Canadians were mobilized of which 67,000 Canadian lives were lost and a further 250,000 were wounded.
Most visible of Canada’s war effort was the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF), which fought throughout
France and Belgium and cemented Canada’s contribution to the war with famed battles such as 2nd Ypres,
the Somme, Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele, and the Hundred Days Offensive. As such, the historiography of
Canada’s military contributions during the war has typically focused on the CEF in North West Europe.
Unfortunately, beyond written text, little has been formulated to bring this research into the digital world.
One such potential digital project is the use of scanned Commonwealth trench maps of which the originals
date back to the battle itself. The Battle of Vimy Ridge is such a battle that has had a great deal of historical
analysis, but is lacking in in-depth map analysis. It is proposed that through the collection of historical data,
including original trench maps, and the development of a geospatial methodology; a visualization via a time
generating map software could potentially catalogue a complete detailed collation of the actions taken at
the battle by Canadian soldiers.
This presentation explored the role of Canadian soldiers at Vimy Ridge through a geographic visualization
animated over time that will highlight how the Canadian Corps advanced at Vimy Ridge. Further, Rebecca
and Trevor seek to explore in which way an inter-disciplinary and inter-university project has allowed for
a sort of collaboration that has proven vital to the success of the project.
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PRESERVING ONTARIO’S PAST, TODAY: OUTCOMES OF THE OCUL HISTORICAL TOPOGRAPHIC
MAP DIGITIZATION PROJECT
Kara Handren, Scholars Portal
Sarah Simpkin, University of Ottawa
Jason Brodeur, McMaster University
Initiated through a grant by the Ontario Council of University Libraries in the Fall of 2014, the OCUL Historical
Topographic Map Digitization Project is an endeavor to preserve and provide broad access to historical
topographic maps covering Ontario at the 1:25000 and 1:63360 scales. Over the past two and a half years,
participants at OCUL institutions and Scholars Portal have worked collaboratively to digitize, describe,
georeference, and make available over 1100 sheets published between 1904 and 1977. Accessible through
Scholars GeoPortal, this digitized collection provides historical snapshots that allow researchers, students,
and the general public to travel through time to explore changes in natural and human environments.
In a follow-up to our 2015 Carto presentation, we presented the entirety of the project workflow,
discussed the lessons learned and methodological improvements realized, and exhibited the project’s
outcomes via a live demonstration of the Scholars GeoPortal-based interface. Additionally, we presented a
framework and workflow for expanding this work to include all of Canada’s historical topographic maps.
ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
Facilitator: Julie Jones, Simon Fraser University
What has kept you awake at night this year? What has you inspired and excited? This session provided
participants an opportunity to engage in informal discussions around one of a number of emerging
issues in map libraries and archives. Attendees collaborated in groups to discuss challenges and
opportunities in these areas, with the purpose of improving understanding, developing potential
solutions and, at the end of the session, communicating group discussion outcomes to the larger audience.
Thursday June 22nd: Conference Presentations
KEYNOTE: CLOSED TO OPEN: A DATA AND GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
METANARRATIVE ON REAL ESTATE IN THE CITY OF VANCOUVER
Andy Yan, Director, The City Program, Simon Fraser University
Real estate in Vancouver can be a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Data visualizations
and spatial analysis can be a beacon into the murkiness of residential real estate in the City
of Vancouver. However, while tools like Geographic Information Systems software have been
at the vanguard of a digital revolution in spatial and policy analysis for almost two decades,
it is only the relatively recent advent of attitudes and practices of Open Data by local and
provincial government that has enabled researchers and scholars to comprehensively examine
and explore Vancouver’s real estate market. Without Open Data advocates, policies, practices,
and infrastructure, data on Vancouver real estate was locked behind the analog gates of cost,
acquisition, and social and professional network centric access. With the great leaps in mapping
and data visualization tools, access to reliable, transparent, and documented data needs to keep
pace and is arguably just as important as the development of the tools to analyze these datasets.
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UNEARTHING GEOLOGICAL HISTORY: REVEALING AND PROTECTING GSC RESEARCH THROUGH
IMPROVED METADATA AND STEWARDSHIP
Francine Berish, Morag Coyne, & Graeme Campbell, Queen’s University
Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) members were instrumental in the exploration and mapping of Canada’s
geology. The information collected over the past 174 years has been distributed as publications such
as maps, reports, monograph series (e.g. GSC Memoirs, Papers, Bulletin), and data. These publications
are valuable because geological observations remain relevant despite age; because these publications
are so detailed; and because, in general, the information cannot be found elsewhere. GSC published
series include various titles and formats. Unfortunately, these details are often omitted from brief series
catalogue records, making these treasures less discoverable for users. In an ecosystem that is progressively
digital, large physical collections like the GSC series pose significant challenges. At Queen’s University,
these important series were historically duplicated across department libraries with varying levels of
description, and, at times, different classification systems. Our project focuses on improving discoverability
and ease of retrieval for these series through the creation and enhancement of electronic catalogue
records; by co-locating maps and documents in order to create conditions for improved stewardship
and preservation; and by uniting maps with scanning equipment, information services and support.
OK, WE’VE SCANNED THE MAPS–WHAT NOW? REFLECTING ON FIVE YEARS OF MAP
DIGITIZATION
Gordon Beck & Jason Brodeur, McMaster University
With the purchase of a large-format scanner in early 2012, the McMaster University Library’s Lloyd
Reeds Map Collection embarked on a self-supported digitization program that aimed to increase
access to and use of its special and local historical collections. Through the dedicated work of staff
and students during the past five years, over 7500 maps, plans, and aerial photos have been digitized,
and nearly 10000 total items have been made discoverable, and freely and openly accessible through
the Library’s Digital Archive. As the digitization program approaches significant duration- and size-related
milestones, it presents an opportunity to reflect on its successes, challenges, and lessons-learned,
as well as discuss the broader questions that will direct its future development. Through this
talk, we explored the value of accessible, digitized map collections, while simultaneously critically
assessing their place alongside physical materials in research, teaching, and public engagement.
TIME TO TALK: SEEING, HOLDING AND SHARING PRINT MAP COLLECTIONS
Rachel Bergquist & Emily Sugerman, University of British Columbia
With the rise of the so-called “digital revolution” and in the age of “born digital,” academic libraries face
challenges regarding their existing print map collections. Some universities have opted to resolve library
space issues by deaccessioning cartographic materials, or to place their maps in permanent dark storage.
On the other hand, print maps are enduring documentary sources of the public record; there is much to be
gained from studying a print map rather than its digitised counterpart. This creates a dilemma between
seeing, holding, and sharing print maps. Institutional collaboration and enhanced partnerships can preclude
the loss of valuable collections and last copy materials on a large scale. Our presentation focused on three
universities in British Columbia (Simon Fraser University, University of Victoria, and University of British
Columbia) and their respective print map dilemmas.We outlined some of the major challenges of print
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map collection maintenance, and how this impacts decision-making processes in regards to sharing
and accessing print maps. We concluded by asking, will shared print map collections become the new
normal for academic libraries? Is it possible to initiate effective methods for the academic community to
see and hold print map collections that are shared across institutions and regions? We aimed to spark
conversation between map librarians about facilitating better access for hands-on collection use. It is time
to talk about the future of print map collections in a collaborative shared framework amongst institutions.
SPATIAL THINKING BY THE NUMBERS
Barbara Znamirowski, Trent University
This paper will looked at approaches to data visualization focusing on innovative methods of introducing
spatial thinking to quantitative analysis in the social sciences. Options for visualization of quantitative data
including survey microdata and aggregated statistics have evolved and now have important roles in map
and data communities. Key questions considered included: what leading visualization tools are used by
our researchers, how do statistical packages offering mapping options influence use of more traditional
mapping tools and practices, what are the key drivers for change, and what issues should client support
consider when engaging our academic communities and assisting researchers with visualizing quantitative
data spatially? Examples of diverse applications and services such as cloud services, apps, software plugins
and extensions were presented in terms of trends, relevancy and use for thinking spatially.
DIGITAL CONTENT AND MARKETING STRATEGIES TO BOOST GIS WORKSHOP ATTENDANCE
Cynthia Dietz, University of Manitoba
Digital and content marketing strategies boosted attendance at GIS workshops at the University of Manitoba
dramatically. The first strategy involved the development of a Geospatial Semester of seven basic to intermediate
workshops that would appeal to graduate students and faculty as well as undergraduates. The content of our
workshops was changed to address the top strategic research goals at the University of Manitoba. The second
strategy involved the marketing of those workshops to graduate students by the Faculty of Graduate Studies
on their webpage two weeks prior to each semester and thereafter. Not to deny all U. of Manitoba affiliates
an opportunity, identical workshops were offered to faculty, staff and all students within a day or two of the
graduate offerings. All workshops were advertised by the Library through its subject guides. Tools introduced
in the workshops seemed to be in demand. They included visualizations using maps and charts, the use of
map series, hot spot analyses showing degrees of confidence, georeferencing maps for historical analyses,
analyzing satellite imagery and shoreline change, map analysis, and the use of photos, videos and webpages
in a Story Map. Details were offered concerning the attendance and registrations by department and faculty.
MAPPING EN PLEIN AIR: PAINTING THE WAY TO EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
Francine Berish, Queen’s University
It is one thing to scan, georeference and overlay a fire insurance plan onto a contemporary base map creating
an artifact—although providing some well-needed context, these maps still require imagination. It is another
thing entirely to overlay the historic features onto a life-sized, true-to-scale context, allowing tour goers
to step into another world. Standing on the green grass in Douglas Fluhrer Park on the St. Lawrence River
in downtown Kingston, Ontario, it is hard to imagine the once dark and industrial landscape marked with
oil drums, factories and rail lines. One windy day, armed with coordinates pulled from a georeferenced fire
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insurance plan overlay, our smartphones, and some flags, a few of us conspired to bring social history to
life by transposing the historic rail lines onto the grass using field marking paint. We began by marking the
endpoints for our volunteer field painter, and by the following morning the park was transformed into an
immersive backdrop for sharing oral histories from this often overlooked Inner Harbour neighbourhood
of industrial waterfront. This project was the brainchild of Laura Murray and the Swamp Ward and Inner
Harbour History Project (SWIHHP), and in addition to the experiential learning component provided by
life-size learning, the project was also able to feature the georeferenced historical map and fire insurance
plan artefacts by passing them around during the tour as well as posting them on the project blog.
Friday June 23rd: Conference Presentations
TRANSFORMATION OF LEGAL CANADA LANDS SURVEYS RECORDS TO AUTHORITATIVE
DIGITAL RECORDS
Martin Gingras, Surveyor General Branch, Natural Resources Canada
The Canada Lands Surveys Records is a collection of official survey documents dating back to the
early 1800’s, which supports land transactions on the Canada Lands Survey System. This collection
has been appraised by Library and Archives Canada as the most valuable geospatial collection in the
Government of Canada, and includes records confirming the extent of property rights on lands such as
National Parks, Territories and First Nations lands. The transformation of legal Canada Lands Surveys
Records to authoritative digital records was an ambitious project that resulted in the transfer of the
legal value of these physical documents to an authoritative digital record, which now can be accessed
instantly on the web to support economic and social development on these lands. This session went
over the standards and the methodology used to ensure high integrity of the conversion process.
MAP DIGITIZATION AT THE CITY OF VANCOUVER ARCHIVES
Sue Bigelow and Sharon Walz, City of Vancouver Archives
In 2015, the City of Vancouver Archives participated in a multi-departmental project to digitize, geo-rectify,
and mosaic one of its most popular cartographic records, the 1912 Goad’s Atlas of Vancouver, with the goal
of presenting it as a layer in the City’s publicly accessible GIS system, VanMap.
Digital Conservator Sue Bigelow and Digital Archivist Sharon Walz discussed the genesis and execution of
the project within the context of the City of Vancouver Archives’ digitization efforts.
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Dear ACMLA members, friends and colleagues,
On behalf of the ACMLA Executive, we are pleased to announce that the 52nd Annual Conference
of the Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives (ACMLA) will take place in
Montreal, QC from May 28 to June 1, 2018. The conference will be hosted by McGill University,
Concordia University, and Université de Montréal, and will be held in association with IASSIST.
IASSIST is an international organization of professionals working in and with information
technology and data services to support research and teaching in the social sciences. Given that the
ACMLA and IASSIST share many common interests and members, we look forward to expanding the
scope of the Conference program to create a unique mix of data- and geospatial-focussed sessions.
We hope to see you in Montreal in 2018!
Marcel Fortin, President, ACMLA
Deena Yanofsky, Past-President, ACMLA; IASSIST/CARTO 2018 Local Arrangement Committee
Jay Brodeur, Vice President Professional Development, ACMLA; IASSIST/CARTO 2018 Program
Committee
======================================
Chers membres de l’ACACC, amis et collègues,
Le comité exécutif de l’ACACC est heureux de vous inviter au 52e congrès annuel de
l’Association des cartothèques et archives cartographiques du Canada qui aura lieu à Montréal
du 28 mai au 1er juin 2018. L’Université McGill, L’Université Concordia et l’Université
de Montréal seront les hôtes du congrès qui sera organisé en partenariat avec l’IASSIST.
L’IASSIST est une organisation internationale de professionnels travaillant avec les technologies
de l'information et les services de données pour soutenir la recherche et l'enseignement en
sciences sociales. Ayant plusieurs intérêts et membres en commun avec IASSIST, nous sommes
ravis d’élargir la portée du programme du congrès annuel avec un mélange de sessions qui
vise l'utilisation et l'appui des données numériques autant que les données géospatiales.
Nous espérons vous voir en grand nombre à Montréal en 2018!
Marcel Fortin, Président, ACACC
Deena Yanofsky, Président sortant, ACACC
Jay Brodeur, Vice-président au développement professionnel, ACACC; IASSIST/CARTO 2018 comité
de programmation
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Dear ACMLA-ACACC colleagues,
As organizational work is underway for next year's joint IASSIST / CARTO 2018 Conference in Montreal,
the Conference Program Committee Co-Chairs are seeking to fill a couple of Coordinator positions.
Coordinators work with the Program Committee (PC), the Local Arrangements Committee (LAC),
and other subcommittees to perform defined duties related to an event or element of the Conference.
Given that the ACMLA-ACACC will be working closely with IASSIST to deliver this conference, I
would like to solicit members of the Association to volunteer to be a Coordinator. Though it will
benefit a volunteer to have some experience with the event they are coordinating, the PC Co-Chairs
are also happy to create Co-Coordinator positions, where an ACMLA-ACACC member and IASSIST
member work together in this role.
The available Coordinator positions are listed below, with links to their descriptions in the IASSIST
Conference Manual
Poster Coordinator : http://iassistdata.org/conferences/manual/6807
Pecha Kucha Coordinator : http://iassistdata.org/conferences/manual/7506
If you are interested in assuming one of these positions (or would like more information), please
contact me at brodeujj@mcmaster.
Thanks and all the best,
Jay Brodeur
Mills Memorial Library
McMaster University
brodeujj@mcmaster.ca
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
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CONFERENCE PHOTOS
All photos courtesy of Quin Shirk-Luckett, University of Guelph
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ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
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ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
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ACMLA Awards
The ACMLA Executive was honoured to recognize two individuals for their outstanding
contributions to the Association of Canadian Map Library and Archives. Winners were
announced and recognized during the Carto 2017 Banquet.
Cathy Moulder Paper Award
The Cathy Moulder Paper Award is awarded to an individual who has researched, written and
published a paper of significant value in the ACMLA Bulletin. The paper is considered for its solid
contribution to map librarianship, curatorship or archiveship
The recipient for the Cathy Moulder Paper for 2016 is Trevor Ford, for his article, “New Tools
for Military Historians: How GIS Can Help Understand Canada’s North - West Europe Campaign”
Bulletin no. 152.
ACMLA Honorary Membership Award
The Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives (ACMLA) bestows an honorary life
membership on a member who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of map
librarianship or to a more significant understanding and appreciation of maps.
Award Recipient: Richard Pinnell, University of Waterloo
Richard Pinnell’s Nomination letter is below:
By the time Richard retired at the end of December 2011, he had been an active member of ACMLA
and the OCUL Map Group for 33 years.
He started his long career in map librarianship in 1978 at the University of Waterloo.
He worked on the ACMLA executive as Secretary (1980/81), President (1990/91 ‐1992/93) and Past
President (1993/94 ‐1995/96), and was Chair of the OCUL Map Group from 1985 to 1990.
Throughout his career, Richard served on numerous committees in ACMLA and the OCUL Map Group,
and was chair of many of them. He was also an active participant in ACMLA conferences.
He edited the ACMLA Bulletin, 1981‐1984, and he was the editor of the Bulletin’s Geospatial Data and
Software review until his retirement in 2012. He shared his knowledge through the numerous papers
and reviews he contributed to the Bulletin.
Richard has made a distinguished contribution to the map profession and to the Association through his
service and leadership roles. His never ending commitment, dedication and passion for maps and the
Association make him an ideal candidate for ACMLA’s highest award. When Richard received the 2002
ACMLA Honours Award, he said “the [ACMLA] Association is really about mutual support and mutual
encouragement.” Richard provided both to the members of the Association during his long career.
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Committees:
ACMLA:
ACMLA‐NAC Liaison Committee
Awards Committee
Copyright Committee (Chair)
Geospatial Data Access Committee (Chair)
Nomination and Election Committee (Chair)
Publications Committee
Conference Organizing Committee for ACMLA Conferences in Peterborough (1988), Guelph (1994),
Toronto (2002)
OCUL Map Group:
Map Users’ Advisory Committee
Geospatial Data Subcommittee
Other Committees:
Geoconnections Roads Network Advisory Panel
Papers:
“Non‐book cartographic materials: a survey of circulation policies and procedures.” ACMLA Bulletin,
no.81, Dec., 1991: 15-22.
“Report on the Digital Libraries Teleconference, Pennsylvania State University.” [Richard Pinnell
and Grace Welch] ACMLA Bulletin, no. 93, Spring/Summer, 1995: 12‐13.
“Geographical information systems in libraries: issues and challenges.” ACMLA Bulletin, no. 97,
Fall, 1996: 7‐12.
“Data acquisitions issues: the Canadian map libraries’ perspective.” ACMLA Bulletin, no. 107, Winter,
2000: 16‐22. Paper presented at 19th International Cartographic Association Conference /
Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives Conference, Ottawa, August, 1999.
“Forging municipal partnerships for data acquisition.” Presentation with Richard Grignon and Laura
Cole at CARTO 2001, Montreal. ACMLA Bulletin, no. 111, Spring/Summer, 2001: 21.
“TriUniversity Group of Libraries Metadata Project: developing a GIS metadata application.”
ACMLA Bulletin, no. 116, Winter, 2003: 25‐31. Paper presented at ACMLA Conference, Victoria,
2003.
“Supporting the library’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Program through reference
service.” ACMLA Bulletin, no. 119, Winter, 2004: 11‐14.
Reviews:
Street atlas USA (CD‐ROM). Freeport, Maine: DeLorme Mapping Company, 1991. (ACMLA Bulletin, no.
84, Sept., 1992)
Historical atlas of Canada volume II: the land transformed. R. Gentilcore, ed. Toronto: University of
Toronto Press, 1993. (ACMLA Bulletin, no. 92, Jan., 1995)
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FME Professional Suite (FME 2002, Build 159) Surrey, BC: Safe Software Inc. (ACMLA Bulletin, no.
112, Fall, 2001)
Surficial geology of Southern Ontario. Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines,
Ontario Geological Survey, Sedimentary Geoscience Section. Miscellaneous Release. Data 128,
2003. (ACMLA Bulletin no. 118, Fall, 2003)
The enclosure maps of England and Wales 1595‐1918: a cartographic analysis and electronic
catalogue. Roger J. P. Kain, John Chapman and Richard R. Oliver. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2004. (ACMLA Bulletin, no. 126, Spring/Summer, 2006)
Web mapping illustrated. Tyler Mitchell. O’Reilly Media Inc., 2005. (ACMLA Bulletin, no. 128, Winter,
2007)
Second Life, another viewpoint. San Francisco: Linden Research Inc. (ACMLA Bulletin, no. 130, Fall,
2007)
Awards:
At the 1995 ACMLA Annual General Meeting, Richard was presented with a gift in recognition of his
service to the Board ( ACMLA Bulletin, no. 94, pg 29).
2001 ACMLA Paper Award for Richard’s article in Bulletin, no 107 on data acquisition uses (ACMLA
Bulletin, no 111, pg 31).
2002 ACMLA Honours Award (ACMLA Bulletin, no 114, pg 51-52).
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Conference Paper
VIMY AT 100: NEW METHODS FOR UNDERSTANDING AND
COMMUNICATING THE BATTLE OF VIMY RIDGE
Rebecca Bartlett, Carleton University
Trevor Ford, Wilfrid Laurier University
This past April 9th, 2017, thousands of people
marched solemnly up a lonely road to the
Canadian National Vimy Memorial. Amongst the
masses included Prime Ministers, Presidents,
Ministers, Royalty, Soldiers, men, women, and
children, all there to honour, and acknowledge
the 100th Anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
Canada’s Governor General, David Johnston, was
one of many that gave a speech that day, but what
he said, struck a chord of remembrance: “Today,
one hundred years later, we honour their eternal
sacrifice. We mourn their loss.”1 Perhaps no
other words speak to what Vimy Ridge is today
to the Canadian public, a long-ago moment of
national sacrifice that clouds our very public
memory of a long-ago battle in a faraway place.
The Great War represents a watershed moment
for Canada. During the course of four years,
620,000 Canadians were mobilized of which
67,000 Canadian lives were lost and a further
250,000 were wounded. Most visible of Canada’s
war effort was the Canadian Expeditionary Force
(CEF), which fought throughout France and
Belgium and cemented Canada’s contribution to
the war with famed battles such as 2nd Ypres,
the Somme, Passchendaele, and the Hundred
Days Offensive. Perhaps though, there is no
greater example of the CEF’s lore than that
of Vimy Ridge. Over the course of three days,
almost 3600 Canadians died, and over 7000
were wounded while unknown thousands
of Germans were killed and wounded with
a further 4000 captured by the Canadians.
To put this all together, Canada and Vimy Ridge
are synonymous, and the public memory of it is
as strong as Remembrance Day and Memorial
Day. This being said, the reality, according to the
historians, is very different. Today, the historical
community is split on the actual meaning of
the battle and the public memory as well as
the context and outcomes of one of Canada’s
costliest battles. What is known, is that there is
much historical and academic study to be done
of the subject. Currently, the historiography
of Canada’s military contributions during the
Great War, including that of Vimy Ridge, has
typically focused on the CEF. Unfortunately,
beyond written text, and historical summaries,
little has been formulated to bring this
research into an interactive and digital world.
Adapting traditional historical studies to the
digital world is fraught with dangers for both
the historian and the public alike. Without
proper support, the historian is potentially
producing work that is either outdated or
worse, false. Perhaps the holy grail of fixing
this potentially calamitous outcome is inter-disciplinary
work, that requires the historian
to reach out of his or her echo chamber and
into the frightening waters of other disciplines.
Rebecca Bartlett and Trevor Ford are an
example of this, by exploring the historical and
digital gap of the Battle of Vimy Ridge through
combining their disciplines and individual skills.
Being that there is plenty of academic discovery
to be had in terms of the battle, both academics
thought to bring their individual skills of
mapping and historical research together to
explore the subject in a new and unique way.
Both Trevor and Rebecca have a passion for
Canadian military history, a subject that Trevor
is completing his PhD in history on. Meanwhile
Rebecca had completed a project on the
subject of Vimy Ridge during the course of her
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
22
Advanced Diploma in GIS Technology. Trevor
had the access to and the necessary know-how
to engage the plethora of historical documents
on the battle and Rebecca had the GIS skills
and knowledge to make an online geographic
visualization, forming, in their eyes, a “dream
team” of military history geographic visualization.
The Battle of Vimy Ridge was divided into a
number of different stages each with a different
objective line, which generally corresponded
to identifiable topographical features such as
German trenches, shell craters, ditches or roads.
Each objective line was given a code name
(Black, Red, Blue, and Brown, sequentially),
divided into segments, and every segment was
assigned to a battalion. For the Canadians, there
were 38 infantry battalions from 16 Brigades
which made up the four divisions of the CEF
responsible for over 80 individual objective line
segments during the Vimy offensive. For this
project to be successful, it was necessary to find
out which battalion was responsible for each
segment and when they reached each objective.
Focusing on primary documents was a critical
component of the project and there was
extensive use of two specific types of resources:
war diaries and trench maps. During the Great
War, each battalion wrote war diaries that were
comprised of daily reports of the unit’s activities.
Details such as locations, times, and specific
actions were recorded and were invaluable
resources when piecing together the actions of
the entire battle from start to finish. Library and
Archives Canada has scanned and made available
all the war diaries from the First World War2,
and it was predominantly from those documents
that time and objective details for each battalion
were found. Connecting written locations
such as “the 19th Battalion held a line from
ZWISCHEN STELLUNG A.5.c.5.5 to Thelus Road”3
to a geographic location in northwestern France
required the use of First World War trench maps,
specifically those updated between January and
April 1917 and which had labeled trenches.
While a trench map scanned and provided by
the Canadian War Museum was used to digitize
all the the trenches and plot the locations of
individual battalions, McMaster has an extensive
collection of First World War trench maps and
excellent instructions on how to read map reference
numbers such as A.5.c.5.5 in the quote above.
Broadly speaking, the workflow was comprised
of recording detailed objective and time
information from the war diaries in a spreadsheet,
documenting the sources of the information,
joining the data to corresponding digitized
trenches from the trench map, and generating
a visualization of the front line movement in
15-minute intervals for Divisions 1, 2, and 3 of the
Canadian Expeditionary Force. The generation of
lines at 15-minute intervals was done in ArcMap
10.4 using a process of assigning an integer “time
code” to each segment of the objective line that
corresponded to the time it was reached by the
assigned battalion (e.g.: 0 for 5:30 a.m. April 9,
1917, the time the infantry began attacking; 1
for 5:45 a.m.; etc.). Points were generated at
10m intervals along each objective line, and
Natural Neighbour interpolation was used to
create a surface that corresponded to time
instead of elevation. Contours were created at
an interval of 1, the contours were merged with
the original shapefile of coded objective lines,
and manual cleanup of the dataset deduplicated
and gave precedence to known locations. The
shapefile was converted to GeoJSON using
QGIS 2.18 for use with the online visualization.
Rebecca felt strongly that the final visualization
should be viewable in an internet browser
without any specific plugins, downloads, or extra
software. While this was eminently doable it was
not without technical challenges, not the least
of which was the choice of platform. Showing
change over time was a critical component of
the visualization and eliminated several online
mapping platforms, and this was compounded
by the fact that many online mapping tools
change functionality over time and may, in
fact, become unexpectedly defunct.4 In the end,
Rebecca decided to use the D3 JavaScript library
to code the visualization and make it openly
available via GitHub.
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
23
A lofty and ultimately unachievable goal
in the 2-week coding timeframe, software
developer Jim Ellwood stepped in and did
much of the critical coding, notably making
D3 and the multiple plugins (Chroniton and
L.D3SvgOverlay) function in tandem. The final
product is viewable at https://bartlettr.github.
io/VimyRidge/.
Currently, the project has completed the
movements of three of the four Canadian
divisions involved in the battle. The final
division, the 4th Canadian Division, took
insurmountable casualties on April 9th, and
were forced to continue fighting until their
objectives were taking on the 11th. This has
meant that the 4th Divisional records are sparse,
ever changing, and lacking in detail compared
to other divisions’ paperwork. Both Trevor
and Rebecca are hoping to complete the 4th
Division’s movements by the end of August, 2017.
Meanwhile other facets of information can be
added to the map. This includes making the
website more interactive beyond its current
form, including adding battalion areas of
responsibility and possibly inserting the
preceding artillery barrage that happened over
the course of the battle. This could potentially
bring an all-arms approach to Canadian actions
at Vimy Ridge. There are also some tweaks
to make to the visualization, such as adding a
legend and making it obvious when a user has
already clicked a line segment. We’ve made
great leaps and bounds with establishing
workflows but it is still a work in progress.
Link to presentation: https://goo.gl/32xe1j
1http://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/speech-by-the-governor-general-of-canada-at-the-ceremony-
commemorating-the-100th-anniversary-of-the-battle-of-vimy-ridge-618757524.html
2https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/firstworldwar/025005-1000-e.html
319th Canadian Infantry Battalion war diary, April 1917, Vol. 4, pg. 5, http://data2.collectionscanada.
ca/e/e045/e001105157.jpg
4RIP, GeoCommons
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
24
REVIEWS
Compiled by Sarah Simpkin
Cartographies of Disease: Maps, Mapping,
and Medicine
Reviewed by Virginia Pow
Koch, Tom. Cartographies of Disease:
Maps, Mapping, and Medicine. Redlands,
CA: Esri Press, 2017. 412p. $79.99. ISBN:
9781589484672.
Tom Koch is a self described ethicist, writer and
researcher who has been working in the areas of
elder care, medical geography, disease mapping,
cycling, transportation and online information.
His wide breadth of knowledge combined
with his cartographic abilities have come
together to create another fascinating read. As
a previously published author (Mirrored Lives
1990; A Place in Time, 1993; Watersheds, 1994;
Second Chances, 1998; and In Cartographies of
Disease: Maps, Mapping, and Medicine 2005),
Koch has created another well researched work
with Cartographies of Disease: Maps, Mapping,
and Medicine. Koch is currently an Adjunct
professor of Medical Geography at the University
of British Columbia; as well as the Director
of Information Outreach, Ltd. in Toronto, ON.
In the original 2005 version of Cartographies
of Disease: Maps, Mapping and Medicine, Koch
did an excellent job of describing the history
of infectious diseases and how maps have been
used for over 300 years to look at and study these
diseases. The first 12 chapters have been edited
to contain some new information and updates,
however, the biggest updates are the additions
of Chapters 13 and 14. Chapter 13 specifically
looks at diseases from 1691 to 2015 and includes
numerous maps looking at Ebola and its social
implications. Chapter 14 looks specifically
at Ebola and how the outbreaks reached
epidemic conditions. The chapter thoughtfully
contained information related to space, as
well as the economic, cultural, and geopolitical
characteristics that were signal contributors to
the 2014 epidemic. In the author’s words, with
this information “we have a better chance of
an earlier and more complete understanding
of the next one, whenever it arrives.” (366).
Virginia Pow, Librarian
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
Getting to Know ArcGIS Pro
Reviewed by René Duplain
Law, Michael and Amy Collins. Getting to
Know ArcGIS Pro. First edition. Redlands,
CA: Esri Press, 2016. 424p. $84.99 USD. ISBN:
9781589484573.
Getting to Know ArcGIS Pro, first edition is
another entry in the best-selling Getting to Know
series and part of the Esri Press book resources.
This book introduces ArcGIS Pro and is intended
for new and existing GIS users. There are 10
chapters spanning topics such as visualizing,
querying, analyzing, and presenting geospatial
data in 2D and 3D using ArcGIS Pro 1.0 and 1.1.
Each chapter provides numerous step-by-step
exercises that each mimic a unique project with
its own dataset and that can be done in any order.
While not intended to be a comprehensive look
at all the capabilities and functions of ArcGIS
Pro, the book was meant to provide enough
content for students to complete in a semester-long
class and come out with the ability and
understanding to work with the software on
their own, regardless of previous knowledge in
GIS or other Esri products.
The first two chapters focus on the basics of GIS
and getting familiar with the interface of ArcGIS
Pro. Chapters 3 and 4 explore how to connect
data, calculating statistics, using geodatabases,
as well as creating and modifying features.
Chapter 5 is all about facilitating workflows,
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
25
which includes learning to use tasks; a new
feature introduced in ArcGIS Pro that improves
workflows and the documentation of steps.
The rest of the chapter touches on useful-but-
familiar GIS procedures such as using
ModelBuilder and Python scripts for automation
and standardization. Chapter 6 explores various
crowdsourcing options to produce collaborative
maps and how to prepare a database or map
for data collection. Amongst other things, it
incorporates an exercise using Collector for
ArcGIS on a mobile device that then links to
ArcGIS Pro. Chapter 7 specializes in geocoding
and geoprocessing tools. Nearer the end of the
book, the focus shifts on working with raster
data analysis, analyzing spatial and temporal
patterns, and working with 3D data in chapters
8 and 9. Finally, chapter 10 brings it back to the
basics with how to present a project and adds
a new twist on sharing a project in ArcGIS Pro.
Overall, the book is a useful first look at ArcGIS
Pro and a general introduction to GIS. It also
integrates ArcGIS Online throughout many
chapters as it is closely tied to Pro. Those with
no previous background in GIS would perhaps
get the most out of this book, as several exercises
explore concepts and processes already familiar
to experienced ArcGIS Desktop users. However,
anyone looking for a quick and easy look at
ArcGIS Pro will find something to like here,
particularly in the later chapters. The convenient
hand-holding nature of the exercises combined
with the many snapshots make the exercises
fly by. The authors have also included many
useful tips throughout the exercises to improve
efficiency, as well as “Remind Me How” boxes
for clarity. The “On Your Own” sections offer
suggestions to build on the exercises, should the
reader wish to continue down the rabbit hole. On
the other hand, this book is not recommended
for those looking for an in-depth, comprehensive
look at ArcGIS Pro covering every single new
feature and tool. The exercises sometimes end
somewhat prematurely, showcasing a single
tool or the first few steps of a more complex
operation. In the end, Getting to Know ArcGIS
Pro offers a useful and easy-to-use introduction
to this relatively new Esri product and would
make a welcome addition to any academic
library’s collection.
René Duplain, Data Analyst
University of Ottawa
Ottawa, Ontario
Map Use: Reading, Analysis, Interpretation
Reviewed by Peter Genzinger
Kimerling, A. Jon, Aileen R. Buckley, Phillip C.
Muehrcke, and Juliana O Muehrcke. Map Use:
Reading, Analysis, Interpretation. Eighth
edition. Redlands, CA: Esri Press Academic,
2016. 650p. $105.00 CDN. ISBN 1589484428.
Now in its eighth edition, Map Use has become
a well-known resource since the first edition
was published in 1978. Readers of this journal
may remember the review of the seventh
edition by Peter Peller in Bulletin 140, 2012,
pp. 44-45. As noted in that review, three of the
authors are academics involved in the fields of
geography and geosciences, one is currently a
research cartographer with Esri, and the fourth
a freelance writer.
The current edition follows the same format as
the previous one, and is divided up into three
main sections: “Map Reading,” which is really
about the process of map creation, and deals
with topics such as coordinate systems, scale,
projections, map design basics, and accuracy;
“Map Analysis,” which includes chapters on
distance and direction finding, navigation,
analysis of spatial features, surfaces, and
spatial patterns; and, “Map Interpretation,”
which looks at the interpretation of various
geographic features presented on maps, such as
the lithosphere, atmosphere and biosphere, and
human landscape. A closing chapter on “Maps
and Reality” ends the book on an important
note by highlighting the fact that maps are
not “reality,” pointing out the ways maps can
be abused, can obfuscate or misrepresent,
and can also be put to imaginative uses.
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
26
What is new with this edition? The authors
point to the addition of “one new chapter, and
some 50 new four-color illustrations, added
to the 500-plus in the previous edition.” The
new chapter, “Map Basics,” is considered
important because “it focuses on an integral
component of map use—how to design your
own map and to comprehend when someone
else designs a good map.” (p. x). Other new
features include new illustrations linked to
online animated and interactive maps through
QR codes, a new index, and an enhanced glossary.
The audience for this work is broad—perhaps too
much so—being written “...for those who need to
know how to use maps to build or enhance their
spatial understanding of the world,” (ix) Later,
we are told it has been “...specifically designed
and tested for use in a three-credit semester
course of 15 weeks at the college freshman
level…” and that the presentation “...is intended
for the upper high school to intermediate college
level... aimed at both the specialized and general
map user.” (p. ix) The diverse needs of such an
audience can, and here do, lead to problems in
presentation. These issues, and others outlined
below, should be given serious consideration
before purchasing the latest edition.
First, there is the new content in this edition.
In comparing pagination, the 2016 edition at
650 pages appears to have added 69 pages
in total over the 2011 volume. A closer look
reveals this is misleading; the new volume
has had its contents repaginated, starting the
numbering for the introduction at page 2,
where this section was previously paginated
as i-xxviii, and thus gaining 26 pages merely
through changing the page numbers. Much of
the book also appears to be nearly identical to
the previous edition. Chapters 2 and 7 appear
almost identical apart from the enlargement of
a few maps, the addition in Chapter 7 of a map
on “The Invasion of America,” (with QR code)
and a few additional titles added in “Selected
Readings.” With respect to Chapter 6, the new
chapter on “Map Basics,” a good portion is not
new at all. Of the 24 pages in this chapter, fully 6
have been directly taken from Chapter 10 in the
7th edition. Additionally, while the authors claim
the book has been re-indexed, the new index is
3 pages shorter than the earlier addition and
there actually appear to be fewer index entries.
And while the inclusion of QR codes linking to
online maps is an interesting update, the 9 added
codes in total are a fairly slim contribution.
Secondly, the individual chapters are uneven
in their level and quality of content and
presentation. Overall, the quality of writing is
excellent, and this edition continues the tradition
of the others in its clarity of language, and a
logical, easy to follow layout. The book stands out
with respect to plentiful use of figures, graphics
and colours to illustrate cartographic concepts.
Chapter 9 on “Relief Portrayal” is particularly
well done, with abundant images illustrating the
varied ways relief can be portrayed, from hachure
and shading techniques to LIDAR imagery.
The unevenness of the presentation, however,
begins right at the first chapter, diving quickly
into fairly complex concepts, and at a high level
of detail: the earth as a sphere, the graticule,
earth as an oblate ellipsoid, horizontal and
vertical reference datums (with examples such
as NAD83, European Datum of 1950 and its
relation to the International Ellipsoid of 1924).
Undoubtedly it is important for students of
cartography to know the difference between the
NAD27 AND NAD83 horizontal reference datums
at some point, and that on topographic maps
that “the NAD83 position of the map corner is
shown by a dashed plus sign” (p. 37) but perhaps
the first chapter of a general, introductory
text aimed at the “upper high school” level
is not the best place to introduce this topic?
The illustrations are also uneven in quality.
Many of the maps and diagrams are clear,
multicoloured, and easy to read. Some are quite
good; for example the numerous reproductions
of topographic maps from the US Geological
Survey, the Canadian Hydrographic Service
maps (p. 364 and 366), and the colourful and
crisp examples of imagery used in the chapter
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
27
on “Image Maps.” Others, however, look like
they have been copied and pasted at a low
resolution from other sources; notably the
numerous examples from the Atlas of Oregon,
which have pixelated titles and blurred text
(see examples on pp. 157,173, and 175). The
time composite map (p. 210) used to portray
losses by Napoleon’s army in the Russian
campaign of 1812 is practically illegible.
This leads to the next troublesome aspect of
the book. It is disconcerting to find so much
discussion in what is ostensibly a textbook
being given over to commercial applications
and examples. How many senior high school or
even first year undergraduate students will find
it helpful to know the detailed workings of the
“Mercedes-Benz COMMAND navigation system,”
(p. 360) such as how to enter destinations,
determine routes, and display options? The same
goes for the description given for the Garmin
GPS Chartplotter and Aviation units. The authors
seem to anticipate this issue with their claim that
“a few decades ago, discussing these commercial
products would have seemed strange since
most mapping was done by large government
agencies…” (p. x). The National Geographic
Society, Rand McNally, MapArt, and numerous
other commercial map-producing entities
might find this claim a rather dubious one.
Perhaps the most egregious example occurs with
the Jeppesen Internet Flight Planner: like the
other commercial products in the book, a good
bit of text is given over to detailed description
as to how to use this application for flight
planning. How astonishing, then, to find that
this application is no longer supported by the
software manufacturer, but was to be “sunsetted”
as of January 2015 (http://ww1.jeppesen.com/
personal-solutions/aviation/jeppesen-internet-flight-
planner.jsp, accessed June 20, 2017).
The fact that this example was included and
not even updated from the previous edition
furthers the overall impression of unevenness
and sloppiness in editing and presentation.
Other minor annoyances appear. At one point in
a discussion of “Map Critique,” to determine if
good map design guidelines have been followed,
the reader is told to “Check online for a map
critique checklist” (p. 143). This advice seems
inappropriate given the scholarly credentials
of the authors. Not surprisingly, the second
result that comes up when searching on those
terms online is a resource from Esri. Would it
have been too onerous for the authors to create
and include an original checklist of their own?
Map examples are heavily weighted to those
from the USA, and specifically the US Northwest,
and the states of Oregon and California. Perhaps
not surprisingly, many of the maps are included
from the co-authors’ previous work; specifically
the 2003 Atlas of the Pacific Northwest, and the
2001 Atlas of Oregon, co-edited by Kimerling
and Buckley, respectively. Also not surprising,
given this book is published by Esri Press, are
the preponderance of maps “courtesy of Esri.”
Finally, this points to a recurring theme in this
volume, the many appearances of Esri. There are
multitudinous references to Esri applications
such as ArcGIS Explorer, ArcGIS Earth, and
ArcGIS Online. The authors also introduce new
terminology—image maps (p. 247), and story
maps (pp. 8, 11-12) - that are really unique to
Esri and not widely-known terms in the map
world. These continual references often give
the volume the appearance of a marketing
booklet rather than a scholarly textbook
Other notable gaps in the content include:
almost no discussion of what a geographic
information system actually is and how it has
influenced the modern act of map reading,
something especially baffling given all the Esri
examples peppered throughout the text; little
discussion of the differences in reading older
maps vs. modern maps; sparing discussion
of some of the biggest commercial digital
mapping products such as Google Earth and
Google Maps, which have revolutionized how
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
28
many people interact with maps on a daily
basis—perplexing given the appearance of the
many other almost unknown, by comparison,
commercial products; and no discussion of
open source mapping and related movements
such as open data and volunteered geographic
information and how these have impacted
how people create and interact with maps.
Map Use probably works best as a reference
book, as the chapters provide good detail for
someone who wants to dive into a single subject
on an irregular basis. If you are looking for a
similar work that discusses the process of map
reading and interpretation, Judith A. Tyner’s The
World of Maps: Map Reading and Interpretation
for the 21st Century is also a clear, well-written
book aimed at a comparable audience, and
at approximately $70 CDN for the hardcover
edition, is worth considering. If you have a copy
of the previous edition, you will probably want
to wait before spending another $105.00 CDN.
It would benefit readers considerably if the
authors contemplated completely overhauling
the next edition, with more consideration of who
this text is intended for, more careful attention
given to detail and consistent presentation of
graphics, and less overt product placement.
Peter Genzinger, Geography Librarian
Wilfrid Laurier University Library
Waterloo, Ontario
Heard about any new and upcoming books on
geospatial topics? To suggest potential titles
for review, please contact Sarah Simpkin at
sarah.simpkin@uottawa.ca
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
29
From the Reviews Editor:
Thanks to those who submitted book reviews and to all who have expressed interest in reviewing! I’ll
continue to request review copies from publishers - but please let me know if you have read a book of
interest to the ACMLA and would like to submit a review, and if you have any suggestions for titles/sources.
Here are the review guidelines:
ACMLA Bulletin Book Review Guidelines
Review Format
1. Bibliographic Citation
This should include: author, title, edition, place of publication, publisher, date, number of pages, price (if
known) and ISBN. Example:
Bussey, Ben and Spudis, Paul D. The Clementine Atlas of the Moon. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2004. 316p. $80.00 US. ISBN 0-521-81528-2.
2. Content
The review should describe and critically evaluate the work. Typical review elements include: scope, purpose
and content of the work; intended audience; writing style; background and authority of the author; how the
work compares with other titles on the same subject; its usefulness as a research tool; any unique features;
and its suitability for library collections.
The length of the review is at the reviewer’s discretion, but should normally reflect the importance of the
work. A typical review is about 500 words.
3. Your name, title, institutional affiliation, city and province/state
Editorial Policy
Opinions expressed in reviews are those of the reviewer, not of the ACMLA. The Reviews Editor may make
minor edits, without communicating with the reviewer. Should the Editor determine that a major revision
is required, she will contact the reviewer for discussion.
Sarah Simpkin
Reviews Editor
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
30
Alberta
Edmonton Map Society
David Jones
“Friendly” Geology / Wildfires and Water Security
There were two speakers at the Edmonton
Map Society Spring meeting which took place
on Wednesday, May 17th at Claridge House
The first presenter was Rastislav Elgr, B.Sc., GISP, a
GIS Specialist with the Alberta Geological Survey,
Alberta Energy Regulator (mailto:rastislav.elgr@
aer.ca). Mr. Elgr’s presentation was titled Bringing
Geology to Everyone through Interactive Web
Maps and Open Data Site; the abstract follows:
In early 2015, the Alberta Geological Survey
and Alberta Energy collaborated to create a set
of interactive web maps including the Alberta
Interactive Minerals Map (AIMM) . The main goal
of this project was to provide the general public,
mineral exploration industry and government
easier access to previously published geology
and mineral data, in a modern and cost effective
way. We used a combination of ESRI’s ArcGIS
Online and Open Data technologies to create the
interactive web maps and provide easy access to
the data directly from the map interfaces. In this
presentation, I showed how we delivered spatial
geological information to our stakeholders in a digital
interactive format; and I highlighted the advantages
over traditional hard copy delivery methods.
Rastislav’s PowerPoint presentation is available
on request. Please contact me, David Jones
(david.jones@ualberta.ca) , if you would like to
have a copy of the file.
The second presenter was Francois-Nicolas
Robinne, a PhD candidate in Forest Biology
REGIONAL NEWS
Compiled by Marilyn Andrews
and Management at the University of Alberta
(robinne@ualberta.ca). His presentation was
titled More People, More Fires, Less Water:
Exploring Wildfire Risks to Water Security in a
Changing World. See abstract below.
Recent major fire events (e.g. Horse River Fire, Rim
fire) have raised public attention on water quality and
quantity issues induced by fire-related changes in the
hydrological cycle. Vegetation combustion indeed
triggers a range of cascading effects that can greatly
enhance runoff-erosion processes, thereby increasing
water transport capacities eventually leading to higher
downstream flow volumes and pollutant loads.
Such alteration of surface water resources may
pose a threat to human and natural communities
and compromise the provision of a safe drinking-water
supply or reliable environmental flows.
Protecting freshwater resources from dangerous
situations is at the core of the water security
paradigm, although threats emerging after a blaze
have not received much interest so far. Despite a large
corpus of studies showing the potentially deleterious
effects of fire on watershed functioning, research
pieces focusing on water supply issues remain
too rare and are even inexistent at a global scale.
My work explores the spatial potential for the
occurrence of the wildfire-water risk (WWR) at
a global scale through the water security lens. I
defined the WWR as “the potential for wildfires
to adversely affect water resources important for
downstream ecosystems and human water needs for
adequate water quantity and quality”. I mainly used
indexation modelling, a simple method commonly
used to represent complex processes and widely
applied to global scale studies. My research, as
a “flag in the ground”, provides a first worldwide
vision of the present and future patterns of the WWR.
Mr. Robinne’s PowerPoint presentation slides
are available upon request by sending a message
to him at the email address listed above.
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
31
Ontario
Carleton University
Sherri Sunstrom
Goodbye / Hello
1. Joël Rivard has moved to University of Ottawa
where he has accepted a one year term as GIS
Librarian.
2. Carys Carrington, Data & GIS technician
has moved departments. Carys was offered,
and accepted, a one-year career development
opportunity; she is now working as an Analyst
in Institutional Research and Planning.
Queen’s University
Francine Berish
Treasures buried within the Geological Survey
of Canada (GSC) Series
Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) members were
instrumental in the exploration and mapping of
Canada’s geology. Published GSC series include
various titles and formats. Unfortunately, these
details are often omitted from brief series
catalogue records, making these treasures
less discoverable for users. Queen’s University
Libraries (QUL) is currently undertaking a
project focussing on improving discoverability
and ease of retrieval for the Geological Survey
of Canada (GSC) series through the creation and
enhancement of electronic catalogue records;
by co-locating maps and documents in order to
create conditions for improved stewardship and
preservation; and by uniting maps in a library
space with scanning equipment, information
services and support.
A link to the supporting CARTO 2017 presentation
is available at https://osf.io/k8yhm/
University of Toronto
Leanne Trimble
Welcome! / Places to Go
Nadia Muhe joined U of T as Statistical Support
Specialist in January 2017. Nadia holds a master’s
degree in biostatistics and a bachelor’s degree in
statistics and human biology from the University
of Toronto. Nadia has previously worked as
a data analyst with the Council of Ministers
of Education, and at Mount Sinai Hospital.
Kelly Schulz joined U of T as Data Visualization
Librarian in April 2017. She has a Bachelor of
Applied Science (Computer Engineering) and
a Master of Information (Library Science) from
the University of Toronto. She has previously
worked as Data & GIS Librarian at the University
of British Columbia, and as Subject Librarian
for Engineering and Computer Science at the
University of Oxford.
The Map & Data Library launched their new
website in mid-August at http://mdl.library.
utoronto.ca. This brings data & GIS services
together in one site, with an integrated search tool.
Western University
Cheryl Woods, Christine Homuth
Georeferencing Public Domain Air photos
/ Fire Insurance Plans / Roper / RTRA /
Organizational Change
Over the course of the past two years, Casual
and Library Assistants at the Map and Data
Centre have worked towards georeferencing
our collection of London air photos that
are in the public domain. These are used
extensively by students, staff, and faculty as
well as consultants from London and beyond.
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
32
This summer, our Casual Assistant has shifted
the focus to the Fire Insurance Plans (FIPs)
for London. Google Analytics was used to
determine the most popular set which was to
act as the starting point. This was 1922 with
2234 pageviews followed by the year 1888
which had 1572 views, over the course of the
past year (May 2016 through April 2017).
The goal is to have these two years completed
and uploaded by the end of the summer and
continue with the next FIPs in the fall term.
View the scanned FIPs here https://www.lib.
uwo.ca/madgic/fips.html
Western Libraries will begin a subscription
to both the Roper Centre for Public Opinion
Research and Statistics Canada Real Time
Remote Access (RTRA ).
The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research,
located at Cornell University, is one of the
world’s leading archives of social science data,
specializing in data from public opinion surveys.
The Center’s mission is to collect, preserve, and
disseminate public opinion data; to serve as a
resource to help improve the practice of survey
research; and to broaden the understanding of
public opinion through the use of survey data
in the United States and abroad. Founded in
1947,the Roper Center holds data ranging from
the 1930s, when survey research was in its infancy,
to the present. Its collection now includes over
23,000 datasets and adds hundreds more each
year. In total, the archive contains responses from
millions of individuals on a vast range of topics.
The RTRA system is an on-line remote access
facility allowing users to run SAS programs,
in real-time, against microdata sets located in
a central and secure location. A full range of
descriptive statistics is available through the
Real Time Remote Access tool. RTRA users
can calculate frequencies, means, medians,
percentiles, proportions, ratios, and shares.
Western Libraries has been undergoing an
Organizational Renewal Initiative for the past
2 years and the proposed Organizational Model
and Structure was released June 22, 2017. Under
the new model and structure, once implemented,
the Map and Data Centre will no longer exist
as it has. Cheryl will report to Archives and
Special Collections and oversee the Cartographic
Collection (current and archival); Vince Liz
and Christine will be under Research and
Scholarly Communication, providing data and
GIS service. The implementation of the changes is
dependent on several factors, to be worked out. ,
ACMLA Welcomes New Members!
Honorary Member:
Richard Pinnell
Waterloo, Ontario
Student Member:
Rachel Bergquist
Vancouver, BC
rachelrbergquist@gmail.com
Full Member:
Tommy Lavallee
Université de Montréal
Montréal, QC
t.lavellee@umontreal.ca
Anne Hakier
Montréal, QC
anne.hakier@umontreal.ca
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
33
NEW CARTOGRAPHIC RESOURCES: MAPS, ATLASES, AND BOOKS
Compiled by Cheryl Woods
This column offers a list of new cartographic-related publications, including maps, books, and atlases. It
replaces the previously published columns, “New Maps” and “New Books and Atlases”, merging them to
offer one list for the readers.
MAPS
Jamaica Road Map
Collins
2017
ISBN 9780008227999
Battle of the Aisne (Chemin des Dames) 1917
IGN
2016
ISBN 9782758538479
Submarine Cable Map 2017
TeleGeography
Interactive - http://submarine-cable-map-2017.
telegeography.com/
Great Britain: Westminster Parliamentary
Constituencies Map
Stanfords
2017
ISBN 9786000552749
Schweiz
Kummerly Frey
2017
ISBN 9783259011027
Tartans Map of Scotland
Collins
2017
ISBN 780008183707
Castles Map of Scotland
Collins
2017
ISBN 9780008183714
Uxbridge Countryside Preserve & Area
Chrismar Mapping Services Inc.
2017
ISBN 0929140052
Uxbridge South Central Strip Topo
Chrismar Mapping Services Inc.
2017
ISBN 0929140036
ATLASES
Ontario Bicycle Touring Atlas
Bike ON Tours
2016
ISBN 9781927391648
The Human Atlas of Europe: A Continent United
In Diversity
University of Chicago Press
2017
ISBN 9781447313540
The Red Atlas: How the Soviet Union Secretly
Mapped the World
University of Chicago Press
2017
ISBN 9780226389578
Historical Population Atlas of the Czech Lands
University of Chicago Press
2017
ISBN 9788024635774
Lloyd’s Maritime Atlas of World Ports and
Shipping Places 2018
Routledge
2017
ISBN 9781138049239
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
34
Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals 2017: From
World Development Indicators
Interactive - http://datatopics.worldbank.org/
sdgatlas/
National Atlas of Lithuania : Volumes I & II/ Lietuvos
nacionalinis atlasas : I & II tomas
GIS-Centras Nacionaline Zemes Tarnyba Prie Zemes
Ukio Ministerijos Vilniaus Universitetas
2016
ISBN VOL 1 - 9786099579412
ISBN VOL 2 - 9786099579429
Great Britain & Ireland Main Roads Atlas 2018
Michelin
2017
ISBN 9782067217508
France Road Atlas 2018
AA Publishing
2017
ISBN 9780749578725
Multiscale Europe Road Atlas 2018
Philip’s
2017
ISBN 9781849074216
Mapa Oficial de Carreteras Espana
Ministerio de Fomento
2017
ISBN 9788449810084
Poland Road Atlas
Marco Polo
2017
ISBN 9783829736879
Concise Atlas of the World
Times
2017
ISBN 9780008183769
South Vancouver Island : greater
Victoria/Duncan/Ladysmith & Gulf Islands
Davenport Maps Ltd
2017
ISBN 9781896888125
BOOKS
Emerging GIS Applications for Emergency and
Disaster Management
Shruti Mantri and Seema Purohit
2017
ISBN 9781683180098
GIS and Environmental Monitoring: Applications in
the Marine, Atmospheric and Geomagnetic Fields
Stavros Kolios, Andrei V. Vorobev, Gulnara R.
Vorobeva and Chrysostomos Stylios
2017
ISBN 978-3319530840
Volunteered Geographic Information and the Future
of Geospatial Data
Cláudio Elízio Calazans Campelo, Michela Bertolotto
and Padraig Corcoran
2017
ISBN 9781522524465
Map Librarianship: A Guide to Geoliteracy, Map and
GIS Resources and Services
Susan Elizabeth Ward Aber and Jeremy Aber
2016
ISBN 9780081000212
Spatial Analytics with ArcGIS
Eric Pimpler
2017
ISBN 9781787122581
Open the Door to GIS: Teacher’s Edition
Toni Fisher and Gary Sherman
2017
ISBN 9780998547701
Maps and Civilization: Cartography in Culture and
Society, Fourth Edition
Norman Thrower
2017
ISBN 9780226007434
Create a thematic map in 60 minutes: Examples
with QGIS
Stamatis Kalogirou
2017
ISBN 9781520917863
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
35
GIS SOFTWARE AND DATA REVIEWS
Compiled by Tomasz Mrozewski
Geography Products for the 2016 Census of Population
Reviewed by Tomasz Mrozewski, Laurentian University
2016 Census geography and GIS software
products were initially released in November,
2016 with updates in 2017. The 2016 roster
features many products that will be familiar
from previous years, reskinned online tools,
and a whole new unit within the Standard
Geographical Classification. This review will
focus on a few new and updated features of the
2016 Census geography products.
Aggregate Dissemination Areas
Aggregate Dissemination Areas (ADAs) “are
created from existing dissemination geographic
areas and are formed from census tracts (CTs),
census subdivisions (CSDs) or dissemination
areas (DAs)” and cover the whole country in
units of 5,000-15,000 people with the goal of
“ensur[ing] the availability of census data, where
possible, across all regions of Canada”1 while
respecting province/territory, census division
(CD), and tracted census metropolitan area (CMA)
and census agglomeration (CA) boundaries.
The introduction of ADAs should make it
possible to access data for sub-census division
geographies that might otherwise be suppressed
due to confidentiality issues. However, it’s not
immediately evident what purpose ADAs will
serve in tracted CMAs and CAs with larger and
denser populations. The ADA doesn’t immediately
or obviously answer any outstanding issues
this reviewer has faced in the past several
years of data and GIS reference work, but its
true value may become evident in the future.
Individual reference maps are available for
each CD in Canada showing all ADAs2 and ADA
boundary files are also available3.
GeoSuite
GeoSuite 2016 is now available as a web-based
tool on the Statistics Canada website as well as
the downloadable, MS Access-based format of
yesteryear.
The downloadable GeoSuite is essentially
unchanged since its first appearance in 2001
(excepting the addition of new geographical
units such as the ADA), by this point seeming
charmingly retro if clunky. GeoSuite remains
a useful tool for exploring and extracting data
for geographical units within the hierarchy
of the SGC but its limitations are becoming
apparent. It is disappointing that the application
still only contains the current and previous
census year’s data; despite five census’ worth
of data in four editions of GeoSuite, the 2016
edition only incorporates 2016 and 2011 data.
It also unfortunate that the application only
gives dwelling and population counts without
incorporating any additional data points. One
wonders if the downloadable GeoSuite product
line will be discontinued for future censuses
should the web-based version prove successful.
The web-based GeoSuite4 takes much of the
same functionality and places it in a single, more
streamlined interface. This interface incorporates
various features of the downloadable application
as panes in a single web page: the name and code
search into one entry field with the chart search
appearing next to it; search results are given for
1Dictionary, Census of Population, 2016, “Aggregate dissemination area (ADA)” http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/ref/dict/
geo053-eng.cfm
2Aggregate Dissemination Area (ADA) Reference Maps, 2016 http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/geo/ADA/ADA-eng.cfm
32016 Census - Boundary files http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/geo/bound-limit/bound-limit-2016-eng.cfm
4GeoSuite, http://geosuite.statcan.gc.ca/geosuite/en/index
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
36
2016 and 2011 population and dwelling counts,
alongside a bar chart comparing both years’ data
and a reference map showing the geographical
entity in question with an option for overlaying
2011 boundaries; at the bottom of the page
results are given for the geographies selected
in the chart search, which also provides export
options.
The web-based GeoSuite is a welcome
development and should be especially useful
for any students trying to use the service
from a public computer where installing the
downloadable version wouldn’t be permitted.
The bar chart and reference map features are
welcome additions and we hope that these are
not the end of new developments for GeoSuite:
as well as incorporating multiple previous
census’ data and more detailed information
from the Census Profiles, it would be great to see
integration of GeoSearch within GeoSuite so that
the reference map could also serve as a discovery
tool. The only real problem with the web-based
GeoSuite is that it currently doesn’t link out to
any Census Profiles or tabular information other
than the Geographic Attribute File; however, this
may change as the remainder of the standard
census products are released later in 2017.
GeoSuite users should note that Statistics Canada
has identified errors in both the 2016 and 2011
versions of GeoSuite and reissued corrected
versions of both of these products on June 1, 2017.
A notice of the correction was issued through the
Data Liberation Initiative (DLI) mailing list at
that time but there does not appear to be any
mention of this on the Census Program website.
GeoSearch
The interactive, map-based search tool
GeoSearch5 has a fresh coat of paint and some
changes to the way it displays results. The
new GeoSearch is much quicker and slicker
than the old versions which, though archived
on the website, haven’t preserved their full
functionality. Whereas the 2006 and 2011
iterations of GeoSearch linked to limited sets of
census information, the new version provides
a much more comprehensive set of links to
data and analytical products and reference and
thematic maps from the 2016 and 2011 censuses.
When selecting the province of Ontario, for
example, the search results link to 222 data
products, 28 analytical products, and 10 maps.
The main problem with the new GeoSearch is
that the interactive map itself is a bit finicky. The
options to display and remove boundaries and
to specify the geographic levels to search are not
located in the same menu and are not intuitively
placed. More importantly, the level of zoom
determines which level of geography can be
selected: it is impossible to select sub-provincial
levels of geography (such as CDs) when all or
most of a province is visible on the map, even if
sub-provincial boundaries are displayed. This
can be rather annoying and requires undue
zooming and panning to select sub-provincial
geographies. It is also exacerbated by the
lack of a deselect feature, which also makes it
difficult to select a sub-provincial geography
or to confirm that you have selected if you have
already erroneously selected the province. This
issue persisted in current versions of Chrome,
Firefox, and Internet Explorer. Also, the display
window is on the small side, even when enlarged.
Positional accuracy strategies
Statistics Canada has been improving the
accuracy of its road network data through
convergence, the “alignment of the existing
road network to externally available GPS-compliant
authoritative provincial sources.”6
This also means that “Statistics Canada’s
dissemination geographies will better integrate
with other spatial datasets originating outside of
Statistics Canada such as the provincial sources
and municipal topographic data.” The results of
this process will be included in 2016 geography
products for British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario,
Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince
Edward Island.
Is there a dataset or software application you’d like to
see reviewed? Would you like to contribute a review?
If so, contact section editor Tomasz Mrozewski at
tmrozewski@laurentian.ca
5GeoSearch, http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/geo/geosearch-georecherche/index-eng.cfm
6What’s new for 2016,http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/geo/geosuite/new-neuf-eng.cfm
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
37
GIS TRENDS
Barbara Znamirowski
bznamirowski@trentu.ca
Editor’s Introduction
This past month I had the pleasure of attending the ACMLA Carto 2017 conference. This was just one of a
number of conferences related to mapping and spatial technologies that took place this summer, each with
impressive programs and speakers lists. The issues discussed and presented provide a fascinating window
on what we are thinking about and where we are heading. Few of us can attend as many conferences as
we might wish, and so sharing papers and write-ups provides us with some insights into what happened,
enabling us to keep in touch with colleagues and with trends in our field.
My thanks are extended to Ms. Els Aelvoet for providing her report of the 2017 Canadian Cartographic
Association conference, and to Dr. Roger Wheate from the University of Northern British Columbia, who
facilitated this submission to GIS Trends.
Barbara Znamirowski, Editor, GIS Trends
A SUMMARY OF THE 2017 CONFERENCE OF THE CANADIAN CARTOGRAPHIC
ASSOCIATION: “150 YEARS OF CARTOGRAPHY: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE”
ELS AELVOET
The 42nd Annual Conference of the Canadian Cartographic Association was held, May 31st - June 2nd, at
Carleton University. Inspired by the 150th birthday of Canada, the guiding theme of this year’s conference
was “150 Years of Cartography: Past, Present and Future”.
The venue for the conference was the Richcraft Hall, formerly known as the River Building at Carleton
University. The Hall, with its signature open space and beautiful patio overlooking the Rideau River, formed
an excellent venue for a well-attended conference with students, researchers, educators, and professionals
from different levels of government and the private sector participating.
A highlight of the conference was the variety of events held each day. Each successfully bonded the
conference together into one congruent whole, while providing ample opportunities to network. The
conference kicked off with a guided tour of the Canadian Museum of History, followed by a trivia Icebreaker
event on Wednesday evening, and a Wine and Cheese reception on Thursday evening.
There was a map display and poster contest throughout the conference, for which the final results were
announced during the Annual General Meeting on Friday afternoon. The conference closed with an
orienteering contest on the Carleton University Campus, followed by drinks and dinner at the Barley Mow pub.
With about 30 presentations in total, the participants were particularly able to immerse themselves in
their much-loved interest of maps.
The conference sessions began Thursday morning with an insightful talk, by keynote speaker Ian Crain
from the Orbis Institute, on the Canadian Geographic Information System (CGIS) and the amazing story
of rescue and recovery of the entire CGIS databank. The morning continued with an introduction to the
sequence and series of topographic mappings that laid the foundations for the thorough mapping of
Canada, and then how historic topographic maps and historical spatial data have been made available
for research as well as public use. The morning ended with a deep-dive into the techniques that enabled
historians a clearer visualization of the battle for Vimy Ridge.
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
38
Figure 1: Group attendee photo taken on the patio, Richcraft Hall, Carleton University. Photo Credit: Alberta Auringer Wood
The afternoon continued with discussions of current map applications and techniques. Keynote speaker
Chris Brackley from As the Crow Flies cARTography, demonstrated how the design of maps can enable
map-readers to interpret the sometime abstract concept of maps. Additional presentations addressed some
current techniques, research results and challenges regarding how maps are deployed to explain crucial
information to those needing to know. NRCan also provided an overview of their geospatial offerings and
shared some future plans.
On Friday, a prognosis was given on the future of mapping. The keynote presentation by Fraser Taylor from
Carleton University challenged the audience to reflect on the need for cartographers to take control of their
future destiny and not allow technology to drive their response.
A quick snapshot of the afternoon presentations indicated a promising and abundant diversity of possibilities
for the future, supported by an active and dynamic community of cartographers: i.e. Structure in Motion
technology, the current approaches that employ Deep Learning Neural Networks, testing route-finding
efficacy, mapping spatial patterns of urban travel with open source tools, a new method for line simplification,
investigations concerning impact of restaurant proximity on public health, and the potential as well as
limitations of cartographic applications that are dedicated to the representation of stories and its use for
mapping life stories of refugees. The day concluded with a technical session on the Web Mercator Projection
and Raster Tile Maps.
In 2018, the CCA conference will be held at Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia at the Centre of Geographic Science
(COGS), May 30-June 2. Details of the 2017 program and at a future date the 2018 meeting are on the CCA
website (http://cca-acc.org).
About the author: Els Aelvoet, a first time attendee of the CCA Conference, lives in Ottawa and
has her Masters in Geography, from the University of Ghent, Belgium. She describes herself as
a Geographer with a big passion for anything related to GIS, maps and remote sensing. Besides
her desire to keep learning, she is also on the lookout for new and challenging GIS opportunities.
GIS Trends: Note from the Editor
Submissions and Feedback
GIS Trends is a place to share ideas, observations and discoveries in the area of GIS and other
spatial technologies. If you have something you would like to share please write to me. We also
welcome feedback on GIS Trends articles. Proposals for articles and feedback should be sent to:
bznamirowski@trentu.ca Thanks for reading and contributing! Barbara Znamirowski, Editor, GIS Trends
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
39
2017 ACMLA MEMBER LIST
Honorary Members / Membres honoraires
Lorraine Dubreuil
lorraine.dubreuil@mcgill.ca
Cathy Moulder
moulder@mcmaster.ca
Richard Pinnell
Serge Sauer
Yves Tessier
Grace Welch
gwelch@uottawa.ca
Joan Winearls
joan.winearls@utoronto.ca
Members / Membres
Paige Andrew
Maps Cataloging Librarian
Pennsylvania State University
pga2@psu.edu
Marilyn Andrews
Geography Liaison Librarian
University of Regina
Marilyn.Andrews@uregina.ca
Mary-Ellen Badeau
Archivist – Cartographic Records
Provincial Archives of New Brunswick
mary-ellen.badeau@gnb.ca
Rebecca Bartlett
GIS and Digital Resources Librarian
Carleton University Library
rebecca.bartlett@carleton.ca
Colleen Beard
Head, Map, Data & GIS Library
Brock University
cbeard@brocku.ca
Gordon Beck
Map Specialist
McMaster University Library
beckg@mcmaster.ca
Francine Berish
Geospatial Data Librarian
Queen’s University
Stéfano Biondo
Géothécaire or Map and Gis Librarian or cartothécaire
Université Laval
stefano.biondo@bibl.ulaval.ca
Daniel Brendle-Moczuk
GeoSpatial Librarian
University of Victoria
danielbm@uvic.ca
Jason Brodeur
Manager, Maps, Data, GIS
McMaster University Library
brodeujj@mcmaster.ca
P. Louise Buck
Chris Burns
Research Support & Data Services Librarian
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
chris.burns@kpu.ca
Andrew Cook
dalrymple.research@yahoo.co.uk
Dana Craig
York University
dcraig@yorku.ca
Edward Dahl
Andrew Dalip
Dalmart (Sales & Services) Limited
dalmart.sales@gmail.com
Cynthia Dietz
GIS Environmental Studies Librarian
University of Manitoba
cynthia.dietz@umanitoba.ca
This list represents the current membership as of July, 2017
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
40
Eva Dodsworth
Geospatial Data Services Librarian
University of Waterloo Library
edodsworth@uwaterloo.ca
Danial Duda
Map Librarian
Memorial University of Newfoundland, Map Room
dduda@mun.ca
Monica Ferguson
Cartographic Specialist
Carleton University Library
monica_ferguson@carleton.ca
Marcel Fortin
GIS and Map Librarian, Head -- Map and Data Library
University of Toronto Library
marcel.fortin@utoronto.ca
Judith Fox
Map Librarian
University of Reading Library
j.a.fox@reading.ac.uk
Bonnie Gallinger
Maps Assistant/Public Service Assistant
University of Alberta Libraries
bonnie.gallinger@ualberta.ca
Peter Genzinger
Librarian
Wilfrid Laurier University Library
pgenzinger@wlu.ca
Claire Gosson
Geographer (Retired)
National Atlas of Canada
Alex Guindon
GIS and Data Services Librarian
Concordia University
alex.guindon@concordia.ca
Anne Hakier
Bibliothécaire
Université de Montréal
anne.hakier@umontreal.ca
Jordan Hale
Original Cataloguer & Reference Specialist
University of Toronto Library
jordan.hale@utoronto.ca
Siobhan Hanratty
Data/GIS Librarian
University of New Brunswick
hanratty@unb.ca
Brian Jackson
Librarian
Mount Royal University
bjackson@mtroyal.ca
Dan Jakubek
GIS and Map Librarian
Ryerson University
djakubek@ryerson.ca
David Jones
Map Librarian Emeritus
University of Alberta Libraries
david.jones@ualberta.ca
Julie Jones
GIS & Map Librarian / Librarian for Geography
Simon Fraser University
jsj7@sfu.ca
Tommy Lavallee
Chef de bibliothèque
Université de Montréal
t.lavallee@umontreal.ca
Amber Leahey
Metadata Librarian
Scholars Portal, Ontario Council of University
Libraries
amber.leahey@utoronto.ca
Catherine Leduc
Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières
Catherine.leduc@uqtr.ca
Teresa Lewitzky
Library Associate
University of Guelph
tlewitzk@uoguelph.ca
Carina Xue Luo
Geospatial and Data Analyst
University of Windsor
carina@uwindsor.ca
David Malaher
david@malaher.org
Lori Martin
Cartographic Applications Officer
Ontario Ministry of Transportation
lori.martin@ontario.ca
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
41
Susan McKee
Geospatial Librarian
University of Calgary
smckee@ucalgary.ca
Gavin Moore
Technician
Provincial Archives of New Brunswick
gavin.moore@snb.ca
Tomasz Mrozewski
Data, GIS and Gov Docs Librarian
Laurentian University
tmrozewski@laurentian.ca
Andrew Nicholson
Coordinator, GIS & Research Data Services
University of Toronto Mississauga
andrew.nicholson@utoronto.ca
Rosa Orlandini
Map and GIS Librarian
York University
rorlan@yorku.ca
Erika Reinhardt
Archivist
Library and Archives Canada
erika.reinhardt@bac-lac.gc.ca
Joel Rivard
Cartographic Specialist
Carleton University Library
joel.rivard@carleton.ca
Léon Robichaud
Professeur agrégé
Université de Sherbrooke
leon.robichaud@usherbrooke.ca
Tracy Sallaway
Data Technician
Trent University
Kelly Schultz
University of Toronto Library
kelly.schultz@utoronto.ca
Quin Shirk-Luckett
University of Guelph
qshirklu@uoguelph.ca
Sarah Simpkin
GIS and Geography Librarian
University of Ottawa Library
sarah.simpkin@uottawa.ca
Rhys Stevens
Librarian
University of Lethbridge Library, The
rhys.stevens@uleth.ca
Sherri Sunstrum
Cartographic Specialist
Carleton University Library
Sherri_sunstrum@carleton.ca
Petra Thoms
World of Maps
pthoms@worldofmaps.com
Rudolf Traichel
Map Cataloguer
University of British Columbia
rudi.traichel@ubc.ca
Leanne Trimble
Data and Geospatial Librarian
Scholars Portal, Ontario Council of University
Libraries
leanne.trimble@utoronto.ca
Simon Trottier
Conseiller en systèmes d’information géographique
Université de Sherbrooke
simon.trottier@usherbrooke.ca
Wenonah van Heyst
Instructional Associate
Brandon University
fraserw@brandonu.ca
Laura Walton
Coordinator, Geographic Resources Centre
York University
lwalton@yorku.ca
Dr. Roger Wheate
University of Northern British Columbia
wheate@unbc.ca
Susie Wilson
Data Services Librarian
University of Northern British Columbia
susie.wilson@unbc.ca
Alberta Wood
Retired
Memorial University of Newfoundland
awood@mun.ca
Cheryl Woods
Western University
cawoods@uwo.ca
ACMLA Bulletin Number 156, Spring/Summer 2017
42
Kathleen Wyman
kwyman@torontopubliclibrary.ca
Deena Yanofsky
Map and Geospatial Data Librarian
McGill University
deena.yanofsky@mcgill.ca
Barbara Znamirowski
Head, Maps, Data & Government Information Centre
Trent University
bznamirowski@trentu.ca
Student members
Heather Adams
Rachel Bergquist
Martin Chandler
Trevor Ford
Azada Rahi
hragtky@hku.hk
Institutional Subscribers
Alexander Turnbull Library
Archives nationales du Québec
Archives of Ontario Library
B.C. Institute of Technology
Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec
Bodleian Libraries
British Library - Map Library
Brock University
Carleton University Library
Clark University
Dalhousie University Libraries
Dartmouth College
Duke University
Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto
FSD Library Services
Indiana University Libraries
Library and Archives Canada
McMaster University Library
Memorial University of Newfoundland, Map Room
National Library of Scotland, Maps
New Brunswick Museum
Newberry Library
Nipissing University/Canadore College
Northwestern University Libraries
NRCan Library
Ohio State University Libraries
Princeton University Library
Provincial Resource Library
Pusey Library
Ryerson University
Society and Recreation Dept - Toronto Public Library
State University of New York – Binghamton
Syracuse University Library
Texas A & M University
Toronto Public Library
Trent University
Université de Moncton
Université de Montréal
University of Alberta Libraries
University of British Columbia
University of Georgia Libraries
Bulletin de l’ACACC Numéro 156, Printemps/Été 2017
43
University of Illinois
University of Melbourne
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota Libraries
University of New Brunswick
University of Ottawa Library
University of Saskatchewan
University of Toronto Libraries
University of Toronto Scarborough
University of Victoria
University of Washington
University of Waterloo Library
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Western University
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Wilfrid Laurier University Library
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ISSN 0840-9331